Water Wars: Ethiopia and Kenya
While Americans fret about rising gas prices, many experts have argued that the major conflicts of the 21st century will be fought over water, not oil. With support from the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting, multimedia journalists from The Common Language Project and AfrikaNews.org investigate the role of water scarcity in fueling conflict and stifling development in the Eastern African countries of Kenya and Ethiopia.
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Video: Troubled Waters
Over 30 million people rely on East Africa's Lake Victoria for their livelihoods. But lake levels have dropped dramatically in recent years. Climate change, hydroelectric dam projects and increasing pressure on its threatened resources have some environmentalists suggesting the lake may be destroyed within twenty years.
Radio: The Disappearing Lake
Chala Ahmed had a dream. He wanted to build a waterfront home for his family on the shores of Lake Haramaya, in eastern Ethiopia. Now, that's impossible. The lake has dried up. Lakes around the world are shrinking. Some blame climate change. Others believe poor water mismanagement is the root of the problem. Whatever the cause, the shrinking water supply is affecting communities across the globe. Jessica Partnow reports from Ethiopia.
Radio: The Trouble with Elephants
Kenyan farmers are troubled by their newest neighbors -- elephants. A growing elephant population is destroying crops and creating violent confrontations. Jessica Partnow reports on a plan to reign in the pachyderms.
Multimedia: Drought Spurs Resource Wars
DUBLUCK, Ethiopia — On a warm January afternoon in southern Ethiopia, thousands of ill-tempered livestock stand in groups with the pastoralists who have guided them for dozens of miles to drink. The animals dot an expansive field of Acacia trees, severed bits and pieces of dead grass and dust.
Earlier in the day thousands of young goats, sheep and calves took turns to have their fill of water. And the show will not end with the cattle; camels are still waiting in line. For being the best able to resist drought, now they will be last.
Blog: The Most Dangerous Men in Kenya
NAIROBI—The first thing I thought of when I saw the scorched whitewash, shattered windows and collapsing skeletons of businesses in Kisumu's downtown was my father's furniture store in Seattle, Washington.
Poking through the remains of doctor's offices, electronics shops and grocery stores—plastic vials and discarded packaging cracking and rustling beneath my sneakers—I imagined the nights of heartbreak the owners of these business lived through in the anarchic weeks following Kenya's most recent elections.
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Sponsored by the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting.
