DRY:Water scarcity a daily challenge (XINHUA)

Some 350 km northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, almost 300,000 Kapedo villagers in Turkana County came close to starvation this year after their cattle died in what is one of the country's most drought affected districts. This number, according to the World Food Program (WFP), constitutes 10 percent of the entire Horn of Africa population affected by famine.

The WFP said this was the region's worst drought in 60 years. Kenya depends entirely on rain-fed food production.

This year's drought has seen an escalation in food prices, affecting the entire Kenyan population. Maize meal, Kenya's staple food, doubled in price, from just $1 per 2-kg bag to $2, while sugar rose by 150 percent from $1 per kilo due to low cane yields. The country must now import grain from its neighbors who are also under production strains due to erratic climate conditions.

Climate change effects

What is the root of the problem? Environmental experts both in Kenya and the rest of the world have long warned of climate changes and their effects.

"Over the next century, changes in precipitation patterns are expected to continue and [will] be accompanied by a rise in sea level and increased frequency of extreme weather events," warns Dr. Paul Desanker, Head of the Center for Africa Development Solutions in Johannesburg, South Africa. Desanker has previously written extensively on the subject of climate change.

These diverse changes are already being spelt. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) recently warned that spectacular animal and bird migrations, which often attract tourists to the continent, would stop.

"The impact of climate change on these systems is uncertain, but they could be compromised by climate change in the presence of additional land-use pressures," WWF says on its website.

And one of the major migratory systems is located in the Serengeti area of Tanzania and the Masai-Mara region of Kenya. In the last two years, long dry spells have limited the movement of wildebeests and zebras because the grass on the Kenya side has dried. Tourist figures significantly dropped by 20 percent, as reported by the two countries.

But as Dr. Desanker writes in his essay "Impact of Climate Change on Life in Africa," Africa still faces more problems. The continual destruction of these animals' habitats to provide room for the surging population means that usual weather conditions are altered.

"Many communities are vulnerable to the biodiversity loss that could result from climate change. The impact of climate change on humans will also be compounded by climate change-induced alterations of agriculture, water supply and disease," said Desanker.

Professor Richard Odingo of the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi adds, "The African continent is heavily impacted by climate change because of the low level of economic development, and lack of capacity to respond robustly, and to adapt when change strikes." 

According to him, it is imperative to change current lifestyles to adapt to the climatic transitions. To depend on rain, which is unlikely to fall, is wrong, he warns.