Catastrophic flooding and drought: this is what climate chaos looks like

By Donnah Macharia, Business Development Manager at Ripple Effect

In far-western Migori county, on the shores of Lake Victoria, at the end of April farmers in our highly successful Enterprising Migori project (which comes to an end this August), were caught unaware as torrential rains and rising river floodwaters destroyed their homes and crops, and carried away their household belongings. Seven weeks later many are still in temporary camps and accommodation, returning to their smallholdings only to review the damage and salvage what they can.

In contrast, on the east coast, in our Sustainable Futures for Kenya's Women and Young People project, embracing communities from Kilifi to Mombasa and Kwale, the equatorial cyclone El Niño brought tidal surges and torrential rains in November and December. These were followed by punishing highest-ever temperatures (above 40 degrees C) in December into January this year, which were exacerbated by very high humidity.

The impact of these weather disasters last years beyond their moment in news headlines: land and communities take an average three years to recover after drought, and four years after heavy flooding.

But for news audiences who were first introduced to the concept of climate change with the seemingly unthreatening language of “global warming” it’s hard to comprehend that these dramatically contrasting weather events can occur side-by-side, as part of the same changing climate patterns.

Climate scientists and responsible commentators now use “climate crisis” and “climate chaos” to refer to the effects of our globally changing climate which is causing the “climate shocks” that are now the only predictable feature of our annual weather.

We are not a disaster response agency: our area of expertise is long-term climate resilient agricultural development. Nonetheless, at the height of the flooding Ripple Effect project workers were determined to contact the project participants they had been working so closely with. In Migori they travelled by canoe to visit affected communities, and what they saw shocked and saddened even the most experienced project managers.

Livestock, especially goats and chickens, had drowned. Kitchen garden structures were badly damaged, and vegetables were submerged; entire fields of crops had been washed away.

Latrines so painstakingly built by the farmers had subsided and fallen apart, and flooded springs meant that water supplies were now unsafe. Even people’s home were badly damaged, some totally destroyed.

The heavy rains started when farmers had finished planting and some had begun weeding. Crops that had been harvested (mostly cereals) had rotted without drying sunshine. In banana orchards farmers reported that premature fruit was falling; fish farmers lost their stocks when dams overflowed.

Gladys Moraa, one of our farmers says: “We have lost what we invested during farm preparation, planting, and weeding. I bought and planted 16kg of Nyota beans and they have all been washed away by the heavy rains. Now we must start again.”

Our Enterprising Migori project team report that everything that the farmers we work with that has been lost during the heavy rains cannot be replaced.

“But they have not lost hope. They have built their resilience over the four years of this project. They have already removed the debris of what was destroyed and the majority of farmers have replanted already. Some have managed to fix up their animal enclosures, poultry houses and latrines. And even those whose houses were destroyed are starting to rebuild. It’s a real setback for them, but farmers say they have no choice: they have to get their lives back.”

The vulnerability of this region is one of the reasons why we have started a project here to support sustainable livelihoods. Nonetheless, the massive floods and extreme heat over the past six months have had a dramatic impact on Ripple Effect’s project in the southern coastland area, which focuses on developing fruit-growing enterprises (passionfruit, pineapples and mangoes).

People have died, livestock and crops have been destroyed, soil erosion and depletion of soil nutrients have reduced the yields of those crops which have been re-established, and the blockages and damage to roads has affected the availability of a range of food supplies and access to markets where newly trained farmers can sell their produce and earn an income.

Ripple Effect project design already addresses immediate climate impacts in practical ways:

• Training in farm planning so that the right crop is grown in the right way in the right place, considering landscapes that are prone to flooding or parched soil.

• Soil and water conservation measures: rainwater harvesting for home and farm use; climate smart crop and livestock management techniques.

• Training farmers in best harvesting and post-harvest practices to minimize crop wastage and enable crop storage and saving for the future, in case of emergency.

• Promoting access to weather forecasting from the government and media, to plan crop planting and harvesting and ensure personal safety.

Ripple Effect is committed to reducing the overall climate impact of agriculture and enterprise development:

• We promote sustainable agriculture to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the environment, by encouraging the use of organic compost and liquid manure, and botanic pesticides.

• We support effective agroforestry and afforestation through tree planting, particularly of fruit trees.

• We encourage the use of renewable energy, and where that’s not possible, the use of energy-saving wood stoves to reduce trees being cut down.