BECOMING A FISHERMAN ON LAKE TURKANA

KENYA

 

In northern Kenya, herders and farmers must learn to fish to adapt to climate change.

Increasingly regular droughts in the Turkana region of northern Kenya are forcing people to adapt to new means of production. Herders who no longer have the water to water their livestock come down from the mountains to become fishermen.

On the shores of the lake, it is common to find single women who have lost their husbands in cross-border conflicts with neighboring Ethiopian populations. This violence develops around access to water points for people and livestock. Without husbands, these women join the communities bordering the lake in search of small jobs from fishing.

Fluctuations in the lake’s water level induced by the construction of a dam in neighboring Ethiopia have dramatically changed the geography of the lake. The water has risen several meters in places, swallowing up entire villages and forcing people to move further south. The village of Kalokol, which did not exist two years ago, is now home to displaced people from all around the lake. In record time, this small piece of desert land has become a hub of the fish trade throughout the region and the country.

 
 
 

GALLERY

 
 
 
 

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