Our future nightmares are already haunting Africa
- Source: Global Times
- [21:35 March 17 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Ding Gang
In the dust, our car was chocking forward on the potholed road. Looking ahead, we saw the vast grasslands covered with a layer of ripe-wheat yellow.
Occasionally we could see flocks of cows and sheep chewing thin hay. Even the rain-washed gullies along the road sides were dry inside.
Where was the water? After we came into Maasai Mara, Africa's largest game reserve, from the flat road, my eyes had been searching for water.
Finally, I saw it, though it turned out to be not water, but mud.
Passing a small bridge, I saw several deep pools in the dry river. Several local women were washing clothes around the mud-like pool. It was probably their only source of water.
Two days ago, when we were just out of Nairobi airport and still immersed in the excitement of the first arrival in Africa, our local friends asked us directly: "Have you seen the movie 2012? It has no scene set in Africa!"
Only after I had seen the landscape did I understand why our friends asked us such a question. 2012 uses special effects to depict a catastrophic future threat, but this danger already really exists in Africa.
During our stay in Kenya, the drought was with us everywhere. At the local second-largest freshwater lake, Lake Naivasha, we discovered that a once-huge lake that used to stretch for over 13 kilometers had shrunk due to severe drought last year. Large areas of wetlands depend on Naivasha. Our friends said that if this situation lasted for another three to four years, the entire lake would disappear.
At the Good View Hotel near Lake Nakuru, known as the "Bird Paradise", we saw flamingo photos taken by the Chinese photographer Luo Hong hanging on the corridor walls: hundreds of thousands of red flamingos taking off from the deep blue lake, shocking and unforgettable.
However, when approaching Lake Nakuru, we only saw vast expanses of cracks at the bottom of the lake, exposed in the scorching sun.
A friend told us that because of drought, the number of flamingos at Lake Nakuru has dropped from 1.5 million to less than half a million. I am afraid that in the future the spectacular scenes of flying flamingos will only be seen in pictures.
Drought has severely affected the daily life of Kenyans. According to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, food prices soared in many provinces because the drought continued for many months in Kenya, which led to crop failures.
It is estimated that in one month of this year alone, there will be 3.8 million people in need of emergency food aid.
Friends living in the capital, Nairobi, told us that during the water shortage period, it was the equivalent of 10 yuan ($1.46) for one ton of water. They had to buy drinking water from supermarkets and the price of each barrel was roughly 100 yuan. Many Kenyans could not afford such living water or drinking water and had to live in extreme thirst.
