MACHAKOS CLIMATE AWARENESS

Machakos climate awareness

Integrating environmental conservation strategies into the so hyped Machakos County development blueprint will be a step in the right direction. Climatic awareness has recently received global attention, and overlooking local effort would be outright dangerous. Simple statistics of the County indicate a temperature range of 18 to 25 degrees Celsius throughout the year and a bimodal average rainfall of 500mm – 1300mm annually, which is unevenly distributed and unreliable. The total human population is slightly above a million and the main economic activity is mixed farming. That withstanding, impacts of climatic hazards desperately impede the County’s growth potential. Food security, as an example, grossly is compromised and the belly of a meaningful livelihood ripped open.

Climate change has highly been attributed as the cause. This predicament has profound and far-reaching effects on the environment, ecosystems, natural resources and human life. Its impacts and food security are directly interconnected and it is not surprising why households have completely reverted to markets for food supplies. Droughts, floods, pests and diseases, fluctuating temperatures, water scarcity, unpredictable precipitations – bedevil this County.

According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change, most severe consequences of climate change will likely be on food security and livelihoods of agricultural dependent populations in vulnerable countries. The report further indicates that climate change will likely reduce agricultural productivity, production stability and income in areas that already experience high levels of food insecurity. Long-term changes in the patterns of temperature and precipitation will shift production seasons and contribute to the emergence of new animal and plant diseases or introduce diseases in places where they formerly did not exist. It is aptly then understood that the food security trend in this County is and has been deteriorating. Other prerequisites of good health as water and air have also been adversely affected.

All concerned parties should then swing into action and turn the image of Machakos County into its right place. Concentrating on conservation techniques will guarantee hope for generations to come.

Throughout my childhood years, wild fruits would supplement our daily meals but the fate of climatic calamities has swept into extinction the indigenous plant species that bore the fruits. It would be dead hope for any of the present generations’ offspring to locate or know by name single existing wild fruit tree. To cope and survive these depriving situations, house-holds sale firewood, burn charcoal, do casual labor, borrow and rely on remittances and gifts from relatives. In extreme cases, jarring strategies such as reduced food intake, skipping of meals and reliance on relief food are employed.

However, a new U.N report suggesting fortification of everyday diets with nutrient rich insects makes me squirm in my seat. This may not be a comfortable idea to the world especially in my local community where a mere mention of certain insects makes people cringe. The study’s findings on what the researchers call ‘six-legged livestock’ – edible bugs, crickets, caterpillars, grasshoppers, termites – is such a worthy debatable topic in striving to end the food security crises. Entomologists may emphasize the protein-vitamin-mineral triple richness source of these worms, but heaven would open up if the rural poor of Africa will embrace their wisdom.

That being a classic case, our commitment on matters environment should receive a boost or else we acquiesce to the U.N’s option. Institutional capacities in alleviating hunger, diseases and climate related hazards in Machakos County must be strengthened. Assessment, identification and prediction of impacts on vulnerable micro-environments and associated households should be a priority. Dissemination of the so needed information on climate awareness would scale down anticipated catastrophes of environmental degradation.

The County steering committee is already in place and their performance record would positively or negatively enter historical books – we are watching!