Letter from Thika: An African perspective on climate change

Greetings to our friends in Dixon.

Today I would like to tell you about some of the problems caused by global climate change as it affects us in Thika.

As in most years, we were supposed to have long rains by April but the few drizzles that we witnessed this year means that we are to go through a serious water rationing. Already, Nairobi, the capital city of this East African nation has been hit by water shortages after its Ndaka-ini Dam, about 20 miles east of Thika, failed to gather enough water.

The effects of climate change are turning out to be real and coming at a time when we are also facing a cash crisis. This will have a major impact on our town.

Failure of the rains here is not only about food shortages. It is also about lack of power to run industries. The country gets 70 percent of its power from hydro-dams that are also at their lowest. This will make production costly since we have to rely on the more costly thermal power.

Thika is an industrial town and its economy is fueled by myriad big- and small-scale enterprises, largely from the agriculture and manufacturing sector. Without water and without electricity, chances are that products will be expensive.

I will have to dig deeper to buy milk and flour since the nearby farmer will have to buy hay at an inflated price.

I spoke to a farmer just before the April rains and he was in the process of selling his cow. “It is becoming more expensive to have it. I would rather buy milk,” he told me.

Those are the kind of survival tactics people are starting to employ.

We are now installing water tanks into our houses storing water just in case the rationing gets worse. Kitchen gardens are getting more popular and people now grow some vegetables at the backyard.

As Thika residents, surviving both the global economic crunch and the climate change will require much more than mourning. We have to think outside the box and keep moving. For that is the only way to stay sane these days.

Jennifer Wanjiru is a Kenyan freelance journalist living in Thika. She has worked for various media houses and wire agencies. She writes features on environment, science, development and human rights. She has also worked for radio and television as a reporter and a producer, and she covered the Sister Cities visit from Dixon for local media in Kenya.