Kenya: Tana River Grazing Fields Now Filled With Carcasses As Drought Bites

Do not intervene

In the event a private water supplier shows up with a water bowser, each family is only allowed to fetch 40 litres of water selling at Sh25 per litre.

Most affected are children and local schools where teachers have run to Hola Town to survive the drought.

“This school serves no significance at the moment, our children are suffering from hunger, teachers are equally thirsty and nearly starving, it will soon close down,” says Amina Abarea, a resident.

According to the county Kenya Red Cross Coordinator Gerald Bombe, the situation is getting worse as the few water pans left contain toxic water which is unsafe for human consumption.

Mr Bombe notes that the seven shallow wells remaining are all salty hence harmful for human consumption.

He warned that human lives will be lost if the government and well-wishers do not intervene immediately.

“There are more than 800 heads of cattle still in these areas and they don’t have the strength to make it to the Tana Delta. They will be dead by the end of the month if something is not done,” he says.

The Red Cross Coordinator notes that more than 7,000 people are starving in the upper Tana River sub-county.

He also appeals to the county government to supply drugs in the health centres and invest more in energy supplements for the children that are facing malnutrition.

“This is serious, let us not wait until people start dying before we start responding, let us act now and act fast,” he says.