Lake levels in East Africa are rising alarmingly fast, flooding homes and farmlands and displacing people. This is an unintended consequence of global warming and is being repeated around the world.
environment
February 28, 2023
Thousands left homeless near Lake Baringo in Kenya James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A slow-motion disaster unfolds on the shores of Lake Baringo in Kenya. Over the past decade, water has risen steadily, swallowing up homes, shops, health centers, toilets, power supplies, farmlands, tourist sites and more. Malaria, cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery are on the rise. Wildlife is under threat. Conflicts erupt between humans and animals, resurfacing old grievances between neighboring groups.
Baringo’s surface area has more than doubled since it began its ascent. Just beyond the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, the waters of the lake are creeping over the heads of animals and humans. And where East Africa leads, many other countries in the world are following. The North American Great Lakes are also rising. Overall, lakes around the world have expanded since 1984 to occupy an additional 46,000 square kilometers of space, roughly the size of Denmark.
When we talk about inland water bodies, dwindling water bodies such as Central Asia’s Aral Sea, Central Africa’s Lake Chad, and Utah’s Great Salt Lake dominate the discussion. However, the global trend is actually the opposite. The causes of these increases have been debated for years, but the consensus has now settled on us, the real culprits. . Welcome to Rising Lake, the untold story of another human-made catastrophe.
East African lake level rise
The Great Rift Valley of East Africa stretches from Ethiopia in the north to Mozambique in the south, via Kenya in the Democratic Republic of…
