*Shot 27–28 March 2017, Ewaso Ngiro river basin and Isiolo town, Kenya
*B-roll duration 05:00, mute/natural sound/Borana, English
*DJI Phantom 4 drone aerials, ground shots
*Source Kenya Red Cross Society, pool coverage, no restrictions
Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) video, including drone footage, last week graphically illustrated the severity of the drought affecting the Ewaso Ngiro river basin, where pastoralists are digging for water and fear they will have to begin large-scale destocking if the next rains are poor. With much of the river system totally dried up in Isiolo county for at least six months now, there is no option but to sink ‘shallow wells’ into the river bed and scoop out the mud-coloured groundwater with domestic utensils, then lug it on donkey carts to villages. In the merciless heat of the dry riverbed, it’s exhausting work that leaves little energy for much else. But it’s a task that Hawo Holale and Hawo Racho have to perform every two days, carrying their haul back to their village, Gafarsa, about four kilometres away in yellow 20-litre containers. This has to meet all their families’ needs: drinking for animals and people alike, cooking, washing. The only alternative – buying water at 30 shillings for 20 litres – is not an option. When the shallow wells dry up or get too deep to be usable, the menfolk spend a couple of days digging a new one. “This isn’t fresh water. That isn’t this colour,” says Hawo Racho. “Yes, but our parents brought us up on this water and we’re even healthier than them!” Hawo Holale jokes. The pastoralist communities of the river basin are naturally resilient, but this ‘coping strategy’ cannot be kept up indefinitely. The women share the river bed with scores of herdsmen who have trekked their cattle and camels in from the bush as much as 20 kilometres away. They squat in what shade there is – under armed guard, given the drought-induced rise in tension over water – while the livestock drink from troughs set up alongside the wells. Everyone agrees the next rains due about now are pivotal, but to some degree or other most are also aware that the current seasonal forecast from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) is for “depressed” – i.e. significantly below normal – rainfall in most parts of the country. Downstream a short distance – at a dry-season river crossing the Red Cross uses to access the area – Chief Ali Galgalo of the Belgesh ‘sub-location’ near Gafarsa says “if there is no rain in the next few weeks the situation will be very critical”. There will be “no mitigation”, as he puts it. In the worst scenario, the chief says the 1,800 people in his locality, all pastoralists, will have to start distress destocking of their estimated 50,000 animals – selling them for meat, that is, before they weaken further and become totally worthless. Asked what she expects if the KMD forecast proves accurate, Elizabeth Oruoch, Regional Logistics Officer at the KRCS Isiolo branch, says: “I believe this would affect the animals. This would even lead to death of the animals. Eventually this would prompt communities to start destocking…Our volunteers are stationed along the river monitoring the situation as it is, reporting back, so in case of any new happenings around the river then the Red Cross is in a position to know what is actually going on. Red Cross has been able to start the registration of families for CTP intervention – the cash transfer programme – and destocking.” The KRCS has warned the number of people in need of food assistance in the drought has reached 3 million nationwide, while the government says the figure could climb to 4 million in the next few weeks. The National Society and the IFRC also announced they have increased their appeal to $US25 from US$9m and are now seeking to assist just over a million people. “The situation is getting worse every day,” said Dr Abbas Gullet, KRCS Secretary General and IFRC vice-president. The expanded KRCS/IFRC operation focuses on: cash transfers; health and nutrition; livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene; and food security. So far the Red Cross in Kenya has provided more than 13,000 families in the hardest-hit areas with cash transfers, nearly 20,000 people have benefited from Red Cross supported destocking, and some 66,000 people have had emergency food aid.
SHOWS:
-Aerial Kenya Red Cross vehicle crossing dried-up Ewaso Ngiro river bed
-Wide aerial of huge expanse of dried-up Ewaso Ngiro river bed upstream from there
-Ground shot of (at right) Hawo Holale and Hawo Racho
-Hawo Holale and Hawo Racho soundbites (Borana) as above
-Low aerial of camels at well
-Ascending aerial of camels drinking
-Soundbite (English) in Isiolo town as above, Elizabeth Oruoch, Regional Logistics Officer, KRCS Isiolo branch
-Ground long shot of men driving water cart across flat of riverbed
-Women driving donkey cart carrying water
-Aerial of cart disappearing into bush (drone follows cart)
(ends)
