It’s no joking matter in Kenya’s Tana River Basin
Collecting rainwater data on the farm. Photo: Georgina Smith / CIAT
The authors of a new study about climate change impacts in Kenya have both good news and bad for the country’s vital Tana River Basin. First, the good news: Mean annual rainfall may increase by up to 43% in the course of the 21st century, though with clear differences between rainfall in the upper, middle and lower parts of the basin. And now the bad: Extreme climate events, especially flooding, will also increase. The combined effect of this news will be to make water management in the basin a lot trickier during the decades to come.
New findings on the hydrological impacts of climate change in Kenya’s Tana River Basin are being released at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) 2017, held in Bonn, Germany, on December 19-20. Efforts to improve water and land management in the Tana Basin are in the spotlight during a GLF session hosted by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), along with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
How Kenya responds to this challenge will make an enormous difference to people and the environment. Consumers in the capital city, Nairobi, get 80% of their water from the Tana Basin. It also delivers 70% of the country’s hydroelectric power and 35% of its total electricity supply. The basin is home...Read more