For the pastoralists of Dambi in Ethopia, water and pasture for their animals is vital. Nick Martlew finds out how unpredictable weather is putting their work – and consequently their lives – at risk.
It reminds me of a nature reserve back home, a bird-strewn lake crowned with rich green foliage. Back in Wakefield (UK), the reserve was made from a disused slag heap, reclaiming for nature what had been discarded from man’s coal thirst. Here in Borena, almost as far south as you can go in Ethiopia before you reach Kenya, this particular pond has more important business than attracting dog walkers and Sunday cyclists.
For 25,000 pastoralists in this drought-prone region, this pond at Dambi, Moyale district, is the last line of defence against destitution – and worse. For people whose livelihoods depend on their herds, water and pasture for their animals is everything. If the animals don’t have enough fodder or water, they get weak. At best this means they don’t produce offspring so there’s no milk, vital to keep the children healthy. At worst the animals die, robbing families of their principle means of producing or buying food.
In the words of Tadhicha Wargo, a pastoralist we met in a village about a mile from the pond, “the pond is very important for all the communities in this area. We all depend on it.” What’s special about this pond at Ketele is its reliability – an ever-more precious commodity. For the last five years there’s been drought in Borena. Failed rain after failed rain has seen herd-sizes slashed. But this pond was a lifeline. Situated to capture any rain that drops in a wide area, it never ran dry. Through Oxfam’s Drought Early Warning Surveillance (DEWS), the local community decided that the pond needed enlarging and reinforcing to retain more water so the supply lasts through the dry season. Oxfam put in the seed money – just $5,000 US dollars – but the villages around gathered together three times as much in cash as well as their labour. In addition Oxfam mobilised support from local government and other agencies.
This shows the life-over-death value of getting ahead of drought: wait for it to hit and you have to bring in fodder, water and food at great expense. Pre-empt it, and you’ve got a ready-made water bank as a back-up for thousands of people.
Devastating changes
But in the last couple of weeks there has been a devastating shift in the weather. After five years of dry skies, the rain came in such exceptional volumes and violence that the pond filled dangerously quickly. The water overflowed, ripping through the banks. It still holds water – just. Shara Aden, a 22-year-old mother of two, told us: “One more heavy rain and it will break… If it breaks we might have to migrate. This pond is the only one we can reach.”
And this points to a wider story: Climate change is leading to increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and this is the real killer. It’s no longer only drought that communities here have to worry about.
As I left Borena, Oxfam’s team on the ground and our partners were looking at how we can work with the community to reinforce the dam and prevent a disaster. By reinforcing and enlarging the pond, the community around got ahead of the next drought. Now, we all need to get ahead of the next disaster.
The first step is a bit of honesty. Disasters do happen, especially in a country as poor as Ethiopia. Their full scale has to be recognised, because things are only going to get tougher. The world needs to recognise that climate change will probably only make the weather more unpredictable. We all have a responsibility to tackle this head on, from the Ethiopian communities themselves, through their government, to rich countries’ governments and you and me. We burnt all that Wakefield coal. It looks like Shara and Tadhicha are living with the consequences. Tadhicha lugged soil and rock to reinforce that dam. He didn’t have any choice. If we take our responsibilities to those affected by climate change seriously, neither do we.
Update: three days after I visited Dambi, another violent downpour burst the banks of the pond. As Tita Mekonnen, Oxfam’s man on the ground, watched, he said, “in the end, nothing could stop the water from leaving the Ketela pond.” Thoughts turn now to how to help the thousands who relied on this pond through the coming dry season.