Download Climate change, water and Kenya

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Climate Change,
Water and Kenya
A Post-Primary Geography Teacher’s resource for Transition Year and
Junior Certificate students on the topic of Climate Change and Water.
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2
4
KENYA
5
NAIROBI
Kenya and its neighbours
With the help of an atlas identify:
•
1
The countries labelled 1-4
6
• The lake labelled 5
• The ocean labelled 6
Some basic statistics on Kenya and Ireland
Republic of Kenya
Republic of IReland
Area: 582,650 km
Area: 270, 285 km2
Capital: Nairobi
Capital: Dublin
Population: 36,913,721
Annual population growth: 2.8%
Population: 4,109,086
Life expectancy: 55 (male), 55 (female)
Languages: English, Kiswahili,
numerous indigenous languages
Annual population growth: 1.1%
Life expectancy: 75 (male), 80 (female)
Languages: English, Irish
Literacy: 85%
Literacy: 99%
Currency: Kenya Shilling
GDP per person: US$1,200
Currency: Euro
GDP per person: US$44,500
*(100 Ksh = 1 Euro approx.)
Figures taken from CIA Central Intelligence Agency, December 2007
€
Identify three
sets of statistics
that show Ireland
to be
economically
wealthier than
Kenya!
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Meet the Mwangi Family
Below is a picture of some members of the Mwangi family, who live in Kenya, Africa. Like most Kenyans, they live in
the countryside and depend mostly on farming for a living. Outside of farming, there is little employment in the
rural areas of Kenya. Some family members have therefore migrated to Nairobi, which is Kenya’s capital city.
Father: Samuel
Samuel owns the
family’s six-acre
farm. He is now 60
years old. He is a
hard worker and a
skilled farmer. By
the clever use of
irrigation (see Fact
File 1) he manages
to grow maize and beans, which
make up the family’s staple diet. He
also grows cash crops, such as onions
and snow peas, which are sold at the
local market. Some of these cash
crops are bought cheaply by
middlemen who then sell them on to
exporters at greatly increased prices.
Trócaire is helping farmers such as
Samuel to organise themselves in cooperative groups that will by-pass the
middlemen and sell their produce
directly to the exporters.
Mother: Shelmilh
Shelmilh is 50
years old. She
and Samuel have
8 children aged
between 29 and
6, three of
whom still live
on the family
farm. Like most
African women,
Shelmilh works very hard. It is her
duty to cook, to repair the house
and keep it tidy, to care for the
children, to help to water and
weed the crops, to tend to the
farm animals and to milk the
cows. Shelmilh also prepares food
to sell to construction workers
who work on a nearby road. The
money she earns is spent on the
home. An outline of Shelmilh’s
workday is given in Fact File 2.
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Fact File 1: Samuel’s Pan
Samuel dug a pond that enables him to bring water to the
crops on his farm. This pond is called a pan and it serves to collect
rainwater. A hosepipe from the pan carries water to ‘drip irrigate’
the Mwangis’ crops. The pipe has many tiny holes in it, which
allows water to drip slowly onto the ground where the crops are.
The crops are cleverly planted in little hollows that prevent the
irrigation water from seeping away.
Samuel is full of ideas and plans. He hopes to expand his pan to
such a degree that he could set up a small fish farm in his land.
Fish would provide food security for his family and would be a
source of income.
But Samuel’s plans, and even the survival of his family, are now
under threat. Global warming, for which developed countries
such as Ireland are largely responsible, now threatens the Mwangi
farm and many parts of Africa with potentially deadly droughts.
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Son: Morris (15)
Daughter: Nancy (14)
Morris attends
Mirera Primary
School (see Fact File
3). He wants to be a
farmer like his
father. He is a good
distance runner and
practices by running
14 kilometres three
days a week. Morris would love to
become a top athlete like so many of
Kenya’s famous runners. He would
also like to make friends with young
people in Ireland.
Nancy and Morris
share the same
class at school.
Nancy enjoys
school and studies
hard. Each day
after school, she
helps her father
on the farm and
her mother with the housework. She
would like to become a high school
teacher.
Grandson: Dan (5)
Dan’s mother
(who is a
daughter of
Samuel and
Shelmilh) now
lives and works
in Nairobi. Dan is
clever at school
and wants to be a
headmaster when he grows up!
Son: Ian (6)
Ian also attends
Mirera Primary
School. He loves
to play soccer
and other
games with Dan
and with other
children.
Fact File 2:
Shelmilh’s Day
5am
• Rise.
• Make tea to sell to
construction workers on
the nearby road.
• Prepare breakfast (tea
with milk) for family
members.
7am
• Wash clothes, repair or
tidy the house or do
other household tasks
• Prepare fodder (food) for
farm animals. Feed and
tend to the animals*
11am
• Prepare lunch (usually
boiled and fried maize
with beans) to sell to
construction workers at
20 Kenyan Shillings (ksh)
per plate. Twenty ksh
(which is the equivalent
of about 20 cent) would
buy two bars of soap or
enough kerosene to
keep the household
lamp going for one day.
2pm
• Work on the farm,
Fact File 3: Mirera Primary School
Mirera Primary School is a 1.5 kilometre walk from the
Mwangi home. The school has 300 pupils, eight teachers and
eight classrooms. The school is open from 7am to 4.30 pm
(7am to 3pm for junior pupils). The subjects taught are
Maths, Kiswahili (an African language), English, Science,
Social Studies and Religious Education.
An important thing about the school is that it can provide
its students with clean water. Rainwater is trapped on the
roof and is carried from there by pipes into large plastic
storage tanks. When there is not enough rain to fill the
tanks, students must bring their own water to school. During
times of drought, many students do not attend school at all
because they must move with their families to water sources
further away.
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weeding and watering
the crops, then milk the
cows.
4.30pm
• Prepare dinner for the
family
7pm
• After dinner: wash the
dishes, tidy the house
and plan the next day’s
work.
8.30pm
• Go to bed
* The farm animals consist
of two cows, a baby bull,
three chickens and some
baby chicks. The Mwangis
used to have goats and
sheep, but they were
stolen by thieves who
raided the Mwangi farm
three years ago.
Do Activity One on Page 8!
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Water and Drought in Kenya
Ireland
Kenya
Water is one of the world’s most precious
resources. We need it to drink, to grow crops,
to rear animals and to keep ourselves clean
and healthy. Clean water is therefore a basic
human need and human right. Furthermore,
without water our planet would contain no
animal or plant life. Water is life!
It is easy for people in Ireland to forget
how vital water is to our existence. We live
in an economically developed country with
a maritime climate where rainfall is
frequent and where seemingly endless
supplies of water require no more than the
twist or movement of a tap.
People in developing countries such as Kenya place a
high value on access to water.
The Kenyan climate does not provide rainfall all
through the year. You will see from the graph that
Kenya has two rainy seasons only.
Most Kenyans rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.
They have always relied on the rainy seasons to
harvest two crops a year and to rear livestock.
Rainfall figures for a weather station
in Ireland and in Kenya.
1. Identify the month of maximum rainfall and
of minimum rainfall in the Kenyan station
and give the rainfall figures for each of these
months.
2. Identify one main contrast between rainfall
distribution in Ireland and Kenya.
3. What problem might Kenya’s rainfall
distribution present for agriculture?
In recent years, there have been very worrying changes in Kenya’s rainfall patterns. Rainfall amounts have declined
seriously. The rains of March-April have now dwindled so much that they no longer always support a harvest or even
the rearing of livestock. Meanwhile, the number of rainy days during the October to January period has now shrunk
from nearly 60 to about 30. To make matters worse, the times of rainfall are now much less predictable than they
used to be. Farmers are no longer sure when to sow their crops and valuable seeds are often lost when rain fails to
come at its expected season.
A drought is an unusually long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought has increased fourfold in parts of Kenya over
the past twenty years. It can bring untold hardship to families such as the Mwangi family that you have read about
on pages 2 and 3.
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Periods of drought may cause harvests to fail. When harvests fail, food becomes scarce and food prices rise
dramatically. Millet is a cereal that is used for making porridge. During times of scarcity, the cost of one
kilogram of millet has risen from 15 to 100 Kenyan shillings. The cost of a kilo of beans has risen from about
2000 to nearly 5000 shillings. Increased food prices such as these make it very difficult for poor people to buy
food. Long term drought can therefore lead to malnutrition among the poor.
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The actions or ‘coping mechanisms’ that farmers
take to respond to the above problems often
make the overall situation even worse:
O Some people cut down trees to make
charcoal from wood. They then sell the
charcoal and buy food. But when trees are
removed, the soil is less able to retain
moisture. This leads to drier soil, to soil
erosion and therefore to even more crop
failures.
Tho mas the
water carrier
Thomas Ledula is an eight year old Kenyan boy.
Each day after school, he walks from his house to
the nearest river to fetch water for his mother.
O Some men leave their farms and go to other
areas in search of work. Their farms may
become neglected and even less likely to
produce food.
O Farmers sometimes sell their cattle with the
intention of replacing them when a drought
has passed. But rainfall is now so poor and
unreliable that some farmers are afraid to
restock their farms. Such farmers end up
with less food than ever before.
The above three ‘coping mechanisms’ helped
Kenyan farmers to survive seasonal droughts in the
past. But as droughts become more severe and
rainfall becomes more erratic, these traditional
‘coping mechanisms’ now merely add to a vicious
cycle of falling food supplies, poverty and
malnutrition.
Consider the following facts:
• The river is 1.5 kilometres from the Ledula’s home.
• The can Thomas uses to collect the water in carries
10 litres.
• There are 8 people in the Ledula family
• Each person needs at least 5 litres of water a day
for cooking and drinking alone. (To stay healthy
and clean, a person would need five times that
amount of water).
³ IMAGINE that Thomas was asked to collect the
water needed to supply only the cooking and
drinking needs of all his family:
How many times would Thomas need to go to
the river each day to fetch this amount of water?
How many kilometres in total would Thomas
have to walk each day to fetch this water?
If Thomas walked at an average rate of 3
kilometres an hour, for how many hours would
he need to walk each day to fetch this water?
DISCUSS the following questions:
Farming in Africa
(a) How does this farm scene differ from a typical
Irish farm scene?
(b) Describe how drought might affect the lives of
these farmers.
✎
(i) Women and children traditionally fetch water
in Kenya. How might this work affect their lives?
(ii) How might the task of water-carrying be
reduced in Kenya?
Do Activity two on Page 8!
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Global Warming a great challenge of our time
We have seen on pages 4 and 5 how
drought is increasingly affecting the lives of
people in Kenya. Drought now harms tens
of millions of people in the Developing
World. Scientists fear that its affects are
likely to become progressively worse
throughout this century.
Can it be that we in economically developed countries such as Ireland are contributing to the
misery of drought in countries such as Kenya? The answer, unfortunately, appears to be ‘yes’.
Scientific studies show that global warming increases Developing World drought. It is virtually
certain that global warming is being caused by human activities that are taking place
especially in economically developed countries.
How Global Warming Happens
The sun heats the earth with short-wave radiation that passes easily through the atmosphere.
The earth then sends out long-wave radiation, some of which remains in and heats our
atmosphere. This is called the Greenhouse Effect. It is entirely natural and provides the heat
we need for plants, animals and people to survive.
The problem is that ‘greenhouse gases’ such as Carbon Dioxide are now increasing in
our atmosphere, are trapping more and more long-wave radiation and so are causing
global warming. The build-up of greenhouse gases is being caused by human
activities and is triggering the climate to change. This is a huge threat to our planet.
´
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Examine the news article entitled ‘On Global Warming’
(Page 7) and answer or discuss the answers to the
questions that follow:
(a) What do the letters IPCC stand for? Write three factual
points about the IPCC.
(b) Describe two signs of the existence of global warming.
(c) Describe in detail some causes of global warming that
are mentioned in this article.
(d) What effects might severe global warming have on
Ireland and on many parts of Africa?
(e) Describe some lifestyle alterations that you think you
and your family could make to combat global warming?
An Irish street scene
(a) How does the situation shown in this picture affect the
global environment?
(b) What could be done to reduce the usage of private
motor vehicles in Ireland?
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On Global Warming
Global warming is no ‘theory’. It is an ‘unequivocal’ fact according to a 2007 finding of the
United Nations’ IPCC or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC is an expert body
that represents 130 nations. It has received the Nobel Peace Prize for its specialist investigations
of global warming, for which it draws on the research of about 2000 top scientists. The verdict
of a body such as the IPCC must be heeded!
The signs of global warming are everywhere. The planet’s glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking.
Eleven of the twelve warmest years recorded since 1850 have occurred in the past 12 years.
World temperatures are rising progressively and are now 0.76º C warmer than in the ‘preindustrial period’ before 1850. This temperature rise might not at first glance seem significant.
But scientists agree that a further rise of 2º C would probably unleash an unstoppable climate
change that would have horrific effects for our planet and its inhabitants.
The effects of severe global warming would affect people everywhere.
• If the great ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland melt, sea level
will inevitably rise – perhaps by as much as several metres. Such a
rise would inevitably result in the widespread flooding of highly
The melting of glaciers on
populated lowland areas throughout the world.
Mount Kenya is likely to
• Climate change will bring strange and extreme weather patterns
seriously reduce water and
to many parts of the world. Ireland might be warm enough to
hyd
ro-electricity supplies to the
grow grapes and to harbour malaria. On the other hand, if rising
city of Nairobi.
water temperatures in the Arctic cause the North Atlantic Drift
to stall, our harbours could suddenly freeze in winter.
• Some parts of the world may experience prolonged and
destructive rains. But many more regions (an estimated 50% of
How can there be glaciers on
the globe by the year 2090) would experience devastating
Mount Kenya, which is situated
droughts and water shortages. As a result, African crop yields
almost on the Equator?
could be reduced to 50% of their already inadequate levels.
Mass famine would almost certainly follow. As with most global
disasters, it will be the poor who suffer most.
Fact:
Puzzle:
The principal motor of global warming is the ever-increasing use of oil and other fossil fuels that
release more and more Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. Rapid population growth in some
Third World countries plays its part in this. But the main culprit is far closer to home and resides
in the ‘throw-away’ consumer society that now holds sway throughout much of our ‘developed’
world. It is the rich minority and not the poor majority within our planet that are the main
culprits of global warming. The United States, for example, houses a mere 5% of our human
family but emits more than 20% of all global CO2 emissions. Nor can Ireland be proud of itself.
Our near addictive use of motor vehicles has resulted in a staggering increase of 140% in
transport-related greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2004. The rapidly growing
economies of China and India also pose potential problems. These countries house a total of
more than two billion people or one-third of the world’s population. What would happen to
world climates if large proportions of Chinese and Indians were to copy the ways of the West
and seek to make petrol-guzzling cars, foreign holidays and endless electric gadgets part of their
everyday lives?
It is still well within our power to save ourselves from the ravages of global warming. What
we need now is an outbreak of sanity among world leaders and among ourselves. Now that
world leaders have met at Bali, Indonesia, to discuss climate change, it is essential that they
agree on and carry out a meaningful programme of action to reduce greenhouse emissions. We,
as individuals, have our own vital roles to play. If global warming is to be contained, many of us
in the Western World will need to make serious and perhaps painful alterations to our lifestyles.
December 2007
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Activity 1 (relates to pages 2 and 3)
(a)
Find out and write the meanings of each of the following terms
• Middlemen
• Migration
city
• Drip irrigation
• Capital
• Drought
• Staple diet
• The Developing World
• Cash crops
(B)
that have
Describe three problems that were, or are, caused by people and
Mwangi family.
(C)
(D)
How has Trócaire helped the Mwangi family?
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✎
affected the
World? Discuss this
What could you or your class do to help people in the Developing
question in class with your teacher and classmates.
Activity 2 (relates to pages 4 and 5)
You have learned that drought is causing a ‘vicious cycle’ of povert
y in Kenya and other parts
of Africa. The diagram shown here illustrates such a vicious cycle.
Redraw the diagram so that
it fills a double page of your notebook. Give your diagram a suitabl
e title. Then fill in the boxes
labelled A-K with appropriate terms from the mixed-up list of
terms given in the ‘Selection
Box’. Two entries have already been made for you.
K
J
A
I
H
B
G
Drought
occurs
C
Crops fail
F
D
E
Selection Box
• Poor people cannot afford food
• People leave their farms
• Deforestation damages the soil
• Fewer cattle means less food available
• Farms become neglected
• Food prices rise
• People cut down trees
• Drought occurs
• Rains fail
• Crops fail
• People sell cattle
This booklet was inspired by families in Kenya, researched by Trócaire workers and written by
Charles Hayes, author of New Complete Geogrpahy and other textbooks.