CABESI on Turkana Issues – Part 1

Interviewee

Rolf Gloor

Director of CABESI

Interviewers

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Bonnie Muench

Photographer and Book Designer

In Kapenguria, Kenya, on January 13, 2013

Introductory Note

Rolf, a Swiss entrepreneur, came to northern Kenya, was intrigued, and stayed to help improve the welfare of local people and improve the health of local ecosystems. With unique approaches, Rolf has tried, then reshaped, and again tried his concepts for bettering local communities.

Part 2 of this interview with Rolf is titled: CABESI on TURKANA SOLUTIONS

Outline

FROM SWITZERLAND TO KENYA
ELIYE SPRINGS & LAKE TURKANA
TRIBES of LAKE TURKANA
LAKE TURKANA as an ECOSYSTEM
OIL in TURKANA LAND
IMPACTS of GIBE DAM III
CLIMATE CHANGE
INVASIVES: PROSOPIS & HYACINTH
VEGETATION & FUELWOOD ISSUES
HUMAN NEEDS for FORESTS & WATER
SANITATION ISSUES
PROVIDING EDUCATION & HEALTH

Key Quotes Since water distribution facilities don’t exist, women and kids need to walk for up to 10- 20 kilometers to fetch water for living, drinking, washing and cooking. –Rolf Gloor

Invasive Prosopis is probably a bigger imminent danger than the Gibe III Dam’s impacts on lowering local water levels and making them too salty to drink. –Rolf Gloor

FROM SWITZERLAND TO KENYA

NWNL Rolf, thank you for inviting us to document your involvement here in the upper western hills of the Lake Turkana Basin. We are in Kapenguria, above and west of Lake Turkana, on the slopes of Mt. Elgon. Tell us about this region.

ROLF GLOOR Kapenguria is the main town in Pokot County and is neighboring and somewhat near Turkana.

NWNL What first brought you here?

ROLF GLOOR While born in Switzerland, I’ve been in Kenya for 20 years since 1993 and I’ve travelled through Kenya since 1976 for Africa Adventure Tours. That spurred my interest in Northern Kenya, particularly Lake Turkana. I’ve also visited Loiyangalani [on Turkana’s eastern shore] and Sibiloi [145 km/90 mi east of Loiyangalani] on Turkana’s eastern shore for many years. The region has fascinated me because of its extreme environment. The heat, the environment and the people who are live there are all extreme.

Unfortunately, the area between these two communities is not very safe. Even today, there are a lot of killings on a daily basis going on.

It seems like you must forget everything you know about people and Africa when you come to Turkana. The Turkana live among many other tribal people settled here around this lake, including the Rendille and El Molo people. All have different lifestyles, but eventually all can manage this hardship area. The lake itself was never easily approachable from the eastern side because the only places you can find to stay are kilometers away from the lake. The shore is all lava rocks. When I arrived here, it had been difficult to go to the western lake side for many years because of insecurity.

But I live here now, working on my project called CABESI. The letters for this project come from its 3 elements: CA for camels, BE for bees and SI for silk.

ELIYE SPRINGS & LAKE TURKANA

ROLF GLOOR Some years ago, I visited Eliye Springs and saw a lot of reeds, but nothing else – not a single chair or a single spoon. It was just all damaged.

When there, I became interested in doing something on Lake Turkana – since by then I was living here in Kapenguria. I found Eliye Springs to be a small paradise. It is very beautiful, and as it says, it has a spring with pure drinking water. The lake itself is huge – it’s the largest desert lake in the world, over 300 kilometers long and up to 40 kilometers wide. It was fascinating for me to find that place and get the chance to lease that area. I needed to develop a style of desert accommodation. The first idea I had were to just use tents. I remembered seeing huge tents from Qaddafi on TV and I thought that huge tents with carpets would be beautiful. But somehow I didn’t manage to meet Qaddafi or to find out where to find such tents. Then I created a platform with canvas tent cloth from a factory in Nairobi. I wanted to build these tents in Lake Turkana, but I was told, “You can pay me any money, but I will not build these things there because the wind is too strong. There is no rope in the world which can hold this canvas.” So eventually I came back to what I always do – learning and teaching.

There must always be a reason why a community uses what they use. Even if you don’t see the reasons why they do what they do, there are reasons. So eventually, I decided with to build traditional Turkana houses. We call them bomas and they are in fact two buildings – one for accommodations, with a double bed, some furniture and a veranda. The smaller one is a tiled bathroom with a shower. I built the biggest ever traditional Turkana house.

These bomas are beautiful, comfortable – and they need a lot of maintenance, but in a desert it’s hard even to build a food path. This wind moves with the sun nonstop It was also very difficult to structure a lodge for this resort I was constructing. But Lake Turkana was for me. I love water, boating, fishing, So, one of my first investments was a motorboat I got in Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the boat has limited reach because of its petrol consumption, but we can take it almost anywhere. I quickly learned Lake Turkana is a very dangerous, because its winds can change its behavior within almost seconds, turning the lake wild. I built several floats and I tried to put them on the lake for bathers. But the wind and waves were too strong. Even with heavy metal chains as anchor, the next morning the float is somewhere else. It showed how wild the lake can be.

The lake is home to many fish species – I think thirty. The main fish which we eat and enjoy is tilapia and Nile perch. The perch can grow to be a meter long and very heavy. They live in deeper water, and seem to like rocky surfaces. Apparently they hang out near Central Island, a very unique national park in Lake Turkana, well supported by Kenya Wildlife Service. On this island are crater lakes that you can walk around, including Flamingo Lake and Crocodile Crater with great birdlife. They have very rough terrain, are very hot, brutally hot -but what very special island.

NWNL Do you know how old this lake is? Has it always been a desert lake?

ROLF GLOOR What I know is from what I saw on the western side: signs of water levels from long ago. And I don’t believe this region was always desert. I think Turkana was a huge lake earlier. I don’t even think Sahara Desert was always desert, since you can find all sorts of plants and animals there.

NWNL I agree there has been incredible change here. I’ve been over to Koobi Fora where Richard Leakey found evidence that it was quite lush. But many think it always desert here. While on the subject of the paleo-history of this lake region, I read that originally the Omo River flowed from Ethiopia all the way to the Indian Ocean. Then the rift dropped forming Lake Turkana as the terminus of the Omo. What do you know about ancient flows of the Omo River? Was it ever connected with the Nile system? One version of Africa’s paleo waterways is that when Lake Turkana was formed, it was very, very high, and apparently there was an overflow that went to the Nile. Do you know where that course went?

ROLF GLOOR I’m not very versed with the paleo history of Lake Turkana.

But remains in Koobi Fora prove there was a forest there. Its fossils show that the area had abundant wildlife and the first human skulls.

TRIBES of LAKE TURKANA

NWNL Rolf, where did the Turkana people come from? Have they always lived in this area, or did they come down from another part of Africa?

ROLF GLOOR It seems the Turkana people came from the north. They may have followed the River Nile south to here, but somehow they ended up in Turkana land. Like most of the tribes, they came from the northwest.

NWNL What are the differences between the various tribes around Turkana? The Rendille, the El Molo, Turkana, Dassenech, and others…. .

ROLF GLOOR Lake Turkana definitively was given its name through the main tribe. the Turkana. The Turkana are pastoralists who can survive in Turkana’s rough climate and environment, which I think is what makes them a bit rough. Turkanas are not easy to deal with. They need time to understand something, and they’re usually preoccupied with their opinion, which is not always viable, because they don’t travel. They know little of the people in Eliye Springs, and they probably have never been to Lodwar. So, their horizon of knowledge is very limited and illiteracy is common.

The Rendille people are on the east side of the lake, near Loiyangalani. They are traditional, old, camel herders; and all Rendille life is centered around the camel. From marriage, to eating, to movements to payments, everything is around camel. The Rendille are very nice to their camel, which is a bit unusual in Kenya, where you find often people being a bit rough with camels, not very friendly, and often beating them. But you never would see the Rendille beating a camel. In fact, Rendille camels often have names can be called one name and come running like a dog. It is very impressive. They are proud of their camel, and they don’t collect camel milk or eat camel meat. I don’t think camels have been in Turkana for a long time, at least on the western side.

Probably the best known tribe on Lake Turkana is El Molo. These El Molo, people used to live exclusively on fish, which deformed their bones a bit. However, the El Molo don/t really exist as such now. They intermarried with Samburu, Rendille and Turkana. I’m not even sure whether there is still an El Molo) language. They started speaking Samburu and Maasai through their intermarriages beginning 10 years ago. That may be when I heard the last person able to speak the El Molo language.

I think the El Molo tribe became spoiled when they were forced to come to the mainland. They used to live on the islands and were left alone to do what they did. They were discovered very late I think in the 1960’s or 70’s. Before, nobody knew they are existed. Bringing them to the mainland helped destroy that culture. Today they are businesspeople, living on tourists who pay quite a nice fee to see and photograph. They’ve maintained their huts and their way of cutting wood and traditional things just for the tourists. They live in a live museum.

NWNL Moving north on the east side… Did the Gabbra come down from the Huri Hills all the way to Lake Turkana?

ROLF GLOOR Yes, they have temporary access on the eastern side, but they are living north of Marsabit in that desert. I once built solar ovens in that region. But, but Gabbras clash with Turkana who clash with Rendille in that area.

NWNL Then moving north from there, the Dassanach live in northeast Turkana-land and up into the Omo River Delta?

ROLF GLOOR Yes, I think so. I have never been north of Sibiloi.

NWNL Your focus seems to mostly be on the Rendille population.

ROLF GLOOR Yes, many years ago I wrote a small booklet about the Rendille. The population of the Rendille may be 50,000 or so. It’s not a huge tribe, but they cover a huge area from northeast of Lake Turkana into in the Chalbi Desert.

NWNL Is their population gaining or decreasing?

ROLF GLOOR I’m sure it’s gaining, given the importance they place on family, friends, and food distribution.

NWNL Are the El Molo are the only tribe decreasing in numbers?

ROLF GLOOR No, the El Molos just died out because of their bone structure problems. There are few remaining, but they married other people. Other tribes are increasing in numbers.

NWNL It seems these indigenous cultures have been very dependent on the lake? Is the importance of the lake due to fishing, water availability, or something else?

ROLF GLOOR Those who live around the lake are dependent on it. That’s why they live there. There is water, needed, first of all to drink – although it’s salty. But when you sit on the lake shore, you’ll see huge herds of camels, goat, coming to drink. So the lake also provides water for survival for humans and the livestock on which they depend. The lake water quality explains these yellow teeth of the people who live by the lake, drinking salty water. Fishing is another draw of living by the lake. As I mentioned, El Molo exclusively eat fish. Others a bit less. The rural, more land-based communities of Rendille, Turkana and Samburu are not fishing men – they rely on their livestock.

People eat fish because they are hungry and must feed themselves. But not all eat fish. The lake is an important revenue for fishing people. Not many rely really on fish. At least not in the area I know. Fishing today is mostly done professionally, with big boats by companies that pay workers to fish. So fishing often provides job creation.

LAKE TURKANA as an ECOSYSTEM

ROLF GLOOR Yet I believe the lake does more than serve its communities economically. It is more important than that. It is an ecosystem. We don’t know exactly all connections and relations between wildlife, environment, climate, lake, and us human beings. I believe it is not enough to say the lake is important because it provides drink and food for sustenance to people and animals.. I’m sure it’s much more complex.

NWNL Yes, I think that does get overlooked. People also say the value of the lake is its potential effect on weather around a great area if its levels are reduced substantially.

ROLF GLOOR We have to look at the lake in a bigger context.

NWNL Yes, what other values of the Omo-Turkana watershed should we address? Agriculture? Hunting – if there’s any wildlife left?

ROLF GLOOR I think the lake and its ecosystem plays a role in agriculture. When done carefully it’s not so bad. But, these days, people are over-extending their agricultural goals. That damages Turkana as an ecosystem. I don’t think it will collapse immediately. The lake will still be there even in hundreds of years. But it is threatened. I think human beings must be careful what they do its water.

NWNL Beyond local agriculture impacts, can you talk about what’s happening vis-a-vis oil and wind energy companies. They’re also stakeholders in this Turkana Basin. They present a new watershed issue.

ROLF GLOOR Yes, of course. Agricultural developments have benefited the region. The issue is to carefully channel water. There is an independent project near Eliye Springs to produce their own maize and food instead of relying on aid food. It is a small project, but it has a big impact on the community. Turkana is known as the desert. But if you look twice. you know it’s not just desert, but there is water, all over it. Making wise use of this water is fair. But we must avoid too many big bore holes [aka, wells] that drain almost all water from rivers into chambers. In the long term, it’s very counterproductive.

OIL in TURKANA LAND

ROLF GLOOR This new development in discovery of oil here is a big thing in Kenya. Many people in Kenya already see themselves as becoming very rich. When you see the machinery going through Kapenguria as it is transported to Turkana, you believe that there is enough viable oil. We see thousands of trucks and thousands of tons of heavy machinery. So, I believe there is oil, but oil creates a very delicate situation, firstly for the environment.

We know that that it’s not easy to drill for oil without destroying the environment. It is a question of the size. If done cleverly and carefully, I don’t think it will damage a large area. And really, this region needs money. I think Turkana is the poorest region in Kenya with no financial liquidity. So, if that oil is harvested carefully, and if surrounding communities will benefit, then I think this is a positive development. We can’t just say, “No, it is dangerous and destroys the lake and the region.” If oil is there and we need it, I think it must be harvested.

Much more dangerous than environmental impacts, in my mind is the community concern. If these huge companies are up here to just exploit the region and the people, then we must be ready for war.

NWNL What about the wind farm?

ROLF GLOOR Yes, there is a wind farm plant on the northeastern side of Lake Turkana, north of Koobi Fora. It seems it will be the largest wind farm in the world, from what I hear. But project is not yet done.

I have friends in Ken Gen [Kenya Generating Power]; and so I recently talked with the director who said the wind farm plant is very far away, very far out in the desert. Hundreds of kilometers, via difficult roads. To put up such a huge thing involves costly transportation, so maybe, the plan is not imminent.

NWNL Friends in Nairobi are asking why Kenya is constructing this wind farm when it has paid for huge transmission lines to bring hydropower down from Ethiopia’s Gibe Dam. “With that in place, why are we investing in a little bit of wind?” Perhaps that’s why the whole windfarm is project slowing down.

ROLF GLOOR The idea of wind farming is perfect in Turkana, since wind here is regularly so strong.

NWNL Yes. And some say that wind is a critical support to the Ferguson’s Gulf fishery. Since the wind blows from southeast to northwest, it blows all the nutrients and the algae up into that gulf to create the perfect fishery.

IMPACTS of GIBE DAM III

NWNL We’ve been talking about the values of Lake Turkana to fisheries and local tribes. Yet, these people also face unusual problems and challenging consequences, for instance, the downstream impacts of Ethiopia’s Gibe dams. Consequences can be on individual, local, larger regional, national, or international levels. Currently, the big elephant in the room is the Gibe III Dam. Many are concerned about the dam causing a loss of silt coming into Lake Turkana since it’ll be held back by the dams. That also means there’ll be less land replenishment in the Omo Delta. Sometimes there will be more water, sometimes lower water levels and thus raising salinity. How do you think the Gibe III Dam will affect Lake Turkana and its people?

ROLF GLOOR The Gibe III Dam is under construction and posing danger to Lake Turkana. That danger has a long, long line of consequences and effects. The Omo River is the major water source for Lake Turkana. If that water source is limited, then of course the lake probably won’t get enough water. It could reduce its level and the salt the same time – since the lake becomes saltier, if there is less water. I question whether nature can handle that and maintain the current life in the lake. Some species might survive, others probably not. It is a question time and speed – how fast this will happen. Definitively, the planned dam is too big. Definitively it will challenge the lake and its environments. It is very complicated to predict what will happen, because the ecosystem is very complicated….

NWNL How will it affect your investment in the lake, specifically your lodge at Eliye Springs?

ROLF GLOOR If the dam impacts seriously reduce the lake’s water level, then my lodge won’t be on the lake shore – it will be in the desert. Eliye Springs would be different. It wouldn’t be a catastrophe; it would be something else, but not what I wanted….

NWNL But, will it be catastrophic to local indigenous stakeholders? You’ve got your springs at your lodge. But how would a lower lake level affect the local Turkana tribes?

ROLF GLOOR Of course, it would be a catastrophe. Especially when salt quantities are raised to a level when the water is no longer potable. That will be a catastrophe for the whole region around the lake because people on both sides rely on that water. In Loiyangalani on the east side, it will hurt their water for cooking, for washing, for drinking. Even now it’s not very healthy – that’s why you see all these problems with the teeth. But, but at least it’s still, it’s still possible to survive on it.

ROLF GLOOR But when it becomes much saltier, I think the region will become completely arid and the water undrinkable. I don’t think many things could survive. The worst-case scenario is that the Turkana region would become a desert, maybe with a salty lake in the middle somewhere. There may be some specialized insects, mammals and snakes. But the lake won’t support human beings anymore, nor assist them. But that is the worst case, and the worst case is not happening.

NWNL Is there any chance that this Gibe III Dam will be stopped? If so, who, who could put the pressure on Ethiopia – perhaps China? Do you have any thoughts about that?

ROLF GLOOR I don’t think it could be an African country – not Kenya, not Ethiopia, and not even both together can withstand the offers from big donors, whether it’s China or whomever. Africans agree very quickly on a project when there is money. And so, I don’t think it’s fair to put in this situation. In my opinion there should be an intervention – maybe from the US, maybe from the EU, maybe from scientists all over the world who the danger of such a project. If you leave this this decision to African’s, I think it’s not fair.

CLIMATE CHANGE

NWNL What do you see happening vis a vis climate change? Is it affecting the water levels? Is it affecting the Lake Turkana watershed in general?

ROLF GLOOR It’s very difficult to judge the effects of climate change in a relatively short period. Even the phrase “climate change” is not very old.

Yet I hear it more and more; and of course I see effects. I’ve never seen the water level in Lake Turkana as high as it was this year. Whether this is an effect of climate change or not, I’m not sure. When I came to Kenya 20 years ago, we had set dry and wet seasons – but not anymore.

We can’t say anymore that this month or that month it doesn’t rain one month and in another month it will rain. That’s not true anymore. More than 10 years ago, we had rain almost nonstop in our region, where we are sitting here, there is more than ten years ago. Whether this is climate change or what, I don’t know.

I also am noticing the hunger situation. I hear and read a lot in the newspapers about hunger, indicating that climate change already is having direct effects on the nutrition of local people. We used to have a lot of rain here. When I first came to Turkana, it rained once or twice a year, to the extent that you couldn’t cross Lodwar’s Turkwel River to get to Eliye Springs. But for 2 years, at least 3 or 4 times people were stuck because they couldn’t cross the river.

The river is nonstop full. And the road to Lodwar gets worse and worse because of the nonstop rain, On this western side of Lake Turkana from Kapenguria north there is more rain and unpredictable rain. That’s probably why all the Rift Valley lakes all full like never before. Even Nairobi, even…. There are a few places which don’t get enough rain, but it’s not, not the rule.

INVASIVES: PROSOPIS & HYACINTH

NWNL What are you noticing about invasive species: water hyacinth and the small tree called Prosopis? What is their effect on the lake, on the water.

ROLF GLOOR Prosopis is very dangerous. It was initially brought to Lake Baringo to fight soil erosion. But it spread very fast into huge regions. People are now crying, “What can we do? How can we get rid of this Prosopis?”

The problem is its roots disable other plants’ growth. Where Prosopis grows there is no grass and no other trees. They push all the other vegetation back and take over. Their seeds are very sweet, and so are loved from the goats. But when the goats eat the seeds, they lose their teeth and die because they can’t eat anymore. So Lake Baringo suffered, but since the lake is now overfull – meters higher than ever before – all the Prosopis trees are underwater. I hope they die.

Prosopis is more and more widespread on the roadside. It seems Prosopis is about to produce the same mess in Turkana. Invasive Prosopis is probably a bigger imminent danger than Gibe III’s impacts on lowering local water levels and making them too salty to drink.

NWNL In Lake Baringo, prosopis is now being drowned by the high-water level, hopefully. But I hear prosopis is just now invading Turkana at its high-water level, so the concern is that as the lake water goes down, it will probably strengthen and grow there.

ROLF GLOOR Prosopis doesn’t initially grow in water – it comes from the shores. Also ask, “Where is Prosopis now?” Prosopis is in all these “wadi” [marshes] which have temporary water. That’s where prosopis starts. But it grows very fast and quickly closes the line between one wadi and another wadi. Then it goes towards the lake and pushes into the water. Prosopis doesn’t die when its roots are underwater. But when the whole tree is underwater, they will die. It is a very dangerous plant. When you speak to the locals about prosopis, they laugh. They say, “Eventually my goat has something to eat when everything else dies.” But prosopis kills the other plants, acacias and palm trees, and so that the goat will die eventually when it eats only these fruits.

NWNL What a horror. I’ve heard it’s badly choking the Turkwel River Delta.

ROLF GLOOR Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, KARI, has, has some programs regarding Prosopis. One is to use it fruits to make food for human consumption. The tree is full of thorns and it’s not very easy to handle it.

It can become a very big tree with beautiful shade. And the wood is very nice for carpentry. But it’s invasive. In Eliye Springs I have a very nice Prosopis tree — but I decided two weeks ago to remove it.

NWNL What about the water hyacinth which is invading waterways everywhere?. Is that an issue around where you are?

ROLF GLOOR In Lake Victoria, the presence of water hyacinth is an especially serious problem, bringing fishing and other water activities there to a standstill. Several NGOs have worked on this threat and several scientists have had ideas on getting rid of it. But nobody has found out how to remove that hyacinth. Fortunately, it is not a problem in Lake Turkana — as far as I know. At least on our side, I’ve not seen a single hyacinth, even when boating. Maybe it is because those hyacinths don’t lake rough lakes. Do you know where there are water hyacinths?

NWNL I saw some in 2008 in the Omo Delta with Halewijn Scheuerman. Yet he said they weren’t a problem there, because Delta water levels go up and down with changing flows from the Omo Valley’s mountain tributaries. Water hyacinths can’t adapt to changing water levels. But it could happen someday, so since it was five years ago I wanted to check with you.

VEGETATION & FUELWOOD ISSUES

NWNL Are there now many, many fewer trees in the Lake Turkana watershed? Are people cutting them down for personal use as firewood and for building. I’ve been wondering why there are no trees along the rivers orjust around the lake. And what effect does that deforestation have on issues of soil erosion and water tension?

ROLF GLOOR Vegetation around the lake is very complex and changing. At Eliye Springs, we have beautiful palm trees which give visitors a feeling of holiday. It provides an emergency food for people living in the area. So, when there is no food and great hunger, people come to us for coconuts. They are not nice to eat but they have some nutrition. Of course, the vegetation itself is very important for stopping the soil erosion – an issue facing palm trees, that stand in the sand. Erosion is not easy to be seen in sandy soil. But when there is no tree, there is very fast flooding.

The other trees there, especially beyond the shore, are used mainly for firewood. A need for firewood is one problem, and the charcoal burning another one in both Turkana and up here in Pokot country. To fight charcoal burning would be a very important project for somebody to undertake.

NWNL Is anybody working on that in this area at this moment?

ROLF GLOOR There are many people speaking about it but no serious effort to stop it. Charcoal burning is an illegal trade, but it is the trade of the day. But you can’t dismiss that activity because they need it to survive -also true with goats that destroy the environment. We know charcoal burning is bad, so it’s our responsibility to bring them alternatives for fuelwood, food and for making money. That’s what my CABESI program does.

HUMAN NEEDS for FORESTS & WATER

ROLF GLOOR Charcoal burning is really a crime. When driving in Turkana, you will see hundreds of sacks of charcoal offered along roads in the desert. Where did they find these last trees? There are no trees left. They are cutting the last trees which are around. But we can’t condemn them unless we give them an alternative.

NWNL I’m interested in residents’ ability in accessing water. What is the usual distance they walk to get water? Are there sufficient wells, pumps and boreholes? How could people around Lake Turkana most easily access clean, fresh water here?

ROLF GLOOR At least communities around the lake have a possibility of getting water from the lake for survival. Fortunately, there are also freshwater springs around the lake which also serve the community. To distribute the water to the local communities, I think it only needs a small input of financial and technical input. But no one addresses this need for pumps and some pipes.

Since water distribution facilities don’t exist, women and kids need to walk up to 10- 20 kilometers to fetch water for living, drinking, washing and cooking. People never build their communities directly by the spring. They are cleverer than us. I’m sure we’d build our house next to the spring so we wouldn’t have to run for water. But my friend Agnetta Jeptoo’s Turkana family never builds their house next to the spring. It is the same for all in Turkana and among the Pokot. You don’t dirty soil near water. All must walk to get water to keep it clean. That is smart.

SANITATION ISSUES

NWNL Awareness of sanitary health issues and keeping water resources clean is critical. What are solutions to easing the lack sanitary facilities?

ROLF GLOOR There is still much to be done. Very few places, including schools or churches, have a latrine. The government and NGOs address sanitation issues with workshops. They explain diseases to people and sicknesses that come from this issue. That is critical since the medical network is weak. It’s critical not to get sick.

NWNL Yes, it’s one thing for the government and NGOs to come here to talk about sanitation and how to care for oneself. But if there are no sanitary facilities, what good does that education do?

ROLF GLOOR My CABESI organization and others go into villages to address sanitary issues, but there are many women we still needed to teach. These are problems of awareness. Our local people don’t have access to TV and don’t see images from other parts of the world. They don’t have access to movements of change. They live like the fathers and mothers. Their intellectual horizon is very limited.

This is a society of people who don’t know more than a few streets around their house. They have never been anywhere. When I was first here, one of my key experiences was to see that folks live in their huts and only rarely, maybe once or twice a year, visit their neighbors who may be 1 kilometer away. That’s the furthest extent reached by most people, other than those who go to market.

Posted by NWNL on May 18, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

CABESI on Turkana Issues – Part 1 Omo River Basin