Drought in Tanzania: Pastoralists move around in desperate hope of finding water

 In response to asevere drought in northern Tanzania ACT International has issued an appeal for over US$ 4 million. The drought is decimating the agriculture and livestock. Rainfall has been declining over the past five years. This led to serious crop failures that necessitated food aid to sustain people’s lives in these areas. There are only a few wells left still supplying water. J. Stephens from the Tanganyika Christina Refugee Service reports from the drought striken region.

Traffic begins to flow from at five in the morning. One hears the thudding of hooves and the jangling of bells in the dark. A traffic jam builds up. By eight o’clock, movement has come to a standstill, and there are more than a thousand heads of cattle in line at the Orkasmet water hole in the Arusha region in northern Tanzania. Awaiting their turn, the herds shelter at 100 meter intervals under a sparse shade of thorn trees radiating out in every direction from the water source, awaiting their turn. Clouds of dust on the distant horizon indicate more thirsty animals on their way.

All the land around is bare and brown. There has been no rain since March; no harvest since August 1999. The drought this year is worse than the previous drought. Four consecutive droughts have affected the lives of over 9 million people in Tanzania. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations 1.3 million people are currently suffering from food insecurity. Worst-affected is northern Tanzania. Lutheran World Federation’s Tanganyika Christian Refugee Services (TCRS), a member of the ACT alliance, constructs new water supplies in the drought affected areas.

The water hole at Orkasmet is one of the few traditional sources still supplying water. It consists of a series of about 10 shallow wells, excavated by hand. Each well is owned and maintained by a Masaai clan who carefully manages the rotation of water users. To reach the water cattle tread in single file down a narrow defile, like a tunnel, to the first level which contains a series of water troughs. Water is fed into these troughs from a chain of buckets passed up from several levels lower down by the moran (young Masaai men). At a lower level are different ponds for washing, and below them - the deepest level of all, about 60 feet down, is the well supplying drinking water.

Throughout the day a constant stream of cattle descends to the water hole. While the men are watering the cattle, teams of women and children fill up water containers and carry them up where they are loaded onto donkeys for the long haul home. Some will have to walk up to 20 kilometers.

The water source at the foot of Landenai mountain is enveloped in similar clouds of dust, the air filled with bleating and braying, and the shouts of the moran as they try to control the cattle from queue-jumping. This is an open series of troughs from an old piped supply off the mountain - a relic from British colonial times - now heavily over-used.

TCRS (Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service, LWF) is constructing a new water supply for Landenai, collecting water from about 11 small springs on the mountain into tanks from where pipelines will take it to 150 distribution points in the town and outlying villages. When finished the project will provide a reliable year-round water supply for up to 10,000 people.

The drought is taking its toll on life. Many of the pastoralists have migrated with their herds hundreds of kilometers to the south and west, in search not only of water, but of grazing. Cattle die and cattle are bartered for supplies, even as the price falls. For those who are cultivators life is equally tough with agriculture possible only along the Ruvu river in the eastern part of the district. The Ruvu river, fed by the snows of Kilimanjaro, creates an incongruous belt of rich green, filled with hippo and crocodiles, as it flows southwards and eastwards through these semi-arid plains.

The impact of the drought goes beyond the obvious problems of lack of food and water. East Coast fever, a parasitical disease of cattle, is on the rise. "The migration of herds, their coming together in large numbers, coupled with their poor nutritional status, is contributing to the spread of disease at the moment," explains TCRS animal health trainer Beatuce.

Elsewhere development projects are held up as people turn their attention to survival. Nobody has any spare cash. Sales of tree seedlings from the Womens Group nursery at Landenai have dropped, and the newly formed women’s income generation group at Ruvu-Remit have been unable to get business off the ground because nobody is buying anything at the moment.

In the hills surrounding Landenai, some Masai pastoralists have turned to scrabbling in the dirt for gemstones, alongside miners from outside. They earn 1000 Tanzanian shillings for 1 gram of gemstones. Meanwhile, women from Landenai are benefiting from a new income-generating activity: ferrying water by donkey to the small mining camp. A 20 litre container of water currently fetches 300 shillings at the camp. Which puts everything into perspective. Water is a precious commodity.

In Kimonowo village outside Longido in northern Tanzania the Masai community there benefits from a large TCRS water project. The people are now able to cope in the current drought situation. The project for US$ 370,500 started during the drought in 1997 and was finalized in 1999. There is now enough water, for the people and their livestock. The community has also vegetable gardens, bio gas production and improved hygiene.

In addition the community tries to help some of its neighbours. "They are losing their livestock, and have started to move around, in the desperate hope of finding help. We try our best to help them, and do share what we have", the Masai elders say.

But due to this support for others the people of Kimonowo are afraid that they will run out of water, because utilization is now far beyond the estimated capacity. Neighbouring villages send convoys of donkeys to fetch water. From Kenya they have accepted that 500 people and their livestock of 6000 animals temporarily settle around the village and use the water. Subsequently it is now necessary to rationalize the water.

The ACT appeal (Tanzania - AFTZ02) for about US$ 4,3 million is aimed at providing food and seeds for more than 170,000 people in the areas of Arusha and Kilimanjaro as well as to facilitate rehabilitation of water schemes and soil and water conservation activities. These activities, proposed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (ELCT/TCRS), the Tanzania field programme of the Lutheran World Federation Department of World Service, along with the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) are targeting villages suffering acute crop failure.

with contributions from Thor-Arne Prois