Melting Ice Caps in Africa Raise Concerns
Christian leaders and communities are alarmed over the melting ice caps on Africa's tallest mountains and the continent's dried-up rivers.
The tops of Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro have lost their ice covers as a result of global warming, said Jesse Mugambi, professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Nairobi, during a church-sponsored gathering that concluded on Friday.
Mugambi, who is also a member of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) working group on Climate Change, recalled the intensely clear waters around Mt. Kenya where he use to fish as a boy. Now, he said the rivers which were formerly fed by water from thawed mountain ice caps are dried up from September to March.
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"If, through our actions, we are the cause of loss of precipitation on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro, we are practically linking the Sahel region with the Kalahari," warned Mugambi, according to WCC. The Sahel is the region south of the Sahara while the Kalahari Desert is in southern African.
"The industrialization of the developed countries has come at a cost to ecology. The majority of the victims are people who are not responsible for global warming," said Mugambi.
The professor had presented a paper entitled "The Impact of Climate Change on Access to Fresh Water" at the church-sponsored conference on water that took place May 21-25 in Entebbe, Uganda. Nearly 70 participants including church leaders, theologians, water experts and project coordinators from 25 countries gathered to discuss the role of churches in Africa's water crisis.
Over 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to adequate and safe drinking water, according to experts at the conference. In Uganda, for example, 32 percent of its 28 million people lack access to safe water.
The conference focused on water supply and access to water in rural Africa, community-based water initiatives, the human right to water and social, political and economic factors around the issue.
Participants discussed how communities living near the streams below the mountains will lack adequate water for domestic use or agriculture as the rivers continue to dry up. Attendees warned that this is already taking place and threatening the survival of communities dependent on the water source. Reportedly, there is already competition for water, pasture and farmland which have led to deadly clashes between tribes.
On the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, inhabited by half a million people, there is suffering from deforestation in addition to the water crisis. Most of the trees have been cut down but not replaced with new ones, causing soil erosion.
"When the tree-cover on the land is lost, the economy of the people suffers; the church then suffers because the church is the people," commented Seth Kitange, the co-secretary of the Hai District Water Supply, a project supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).
In response, Christian communities have joined together to build small dams across most of the rivers and streams around the slopes of mountains hoping to improve the life of the local communities and encourage expansion of agricultural production.
Furthermore, ELCT is spearheading a major tree-planting campaign which encourages children of confirmation age to plant and care for at least 10 trees during a period of two years. It is also leading awareness programs about the disappearing trees on the landscape.
"At different moments in Africa's history – the slave trade, colonialism, South Africa's apartheid – the Church of Jesus has been found standing with those who suffered and were exploited," said Mugambi.
"The role of the church now is to stand with those who are adversely affected by water scarcity," he concluded.
The conference was organized by the Ecumenical Water Network, Uganda Joint Christian Council, the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Uganda-based Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development.
