Looking back to See Ahead on Water Harvesting and Conservation
“We never change, do we? no, no
We never learn, do we?”
- Coldplay (We Never Change)
El Nino floods
Oh no. Not Again!
As I write this, the Red Cross and the governments of several African countries (including Kenya) are trying to manage a floods crisis occasioned by the current El Nino rains. Reuters last reported that the floods have claimed over 20 lives.
Interestingly, the Red Cross had 0n October 13, 2009, released a report on the impending crisis. At the time, the Red Cross and Red Crescent were appealing for funding to address this situation. See the East Africa: Emergency Preparedness for El Nino Floods document (PDF 859KB).
My point is, the heavy rains and the resulting floods haven’t caught anyone unawares. Policy makers knew what was coming, and your guess is as good as mine regarding what they did in preparation.
Okay, It’s Raining. Are we Harvesting the Water?
On Sep 03 2009, we published on Green Kenya, a post that sought to know what we had so far learnt from the droughts that have previously ravaged our country.
Earlier on, we had published a post that explored local solutions for harvesting rain water for irrigation. Unfortunately, we lost this post while migrating Green Kenya to a new domain. I’ll however, shortly republish this post for reference.
Looking Back to See Ahead
Life sometimes demands that we look back so as to see ahead. After all, the future is invariably predicated on the past.
On The Walkabout, we have seen Steve Jobs say that “you can only connect the dots in your life by looking backwards”. In a post published on March 20, 2009, Jonathan Haidt wrote the same “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” in his book The Happiness Hypothesis.
That said, I was watching some TED Talks from TED India that was held last year.
Anupam Mishra reminded everyone of the ancient ingenuity of water harvesting in his talk.
Following is the video:
The Challenge, especially in Kenya
I am sad to openly acknowledge that every time we encounter challenges whose solutions are in the public domain (read the Internet), we still talk about the government spearheading efforts to effect change.
As you have probably read earlier in this post, the government (politicians) and other policy makers will not help you improve your way of life. Sad, but true.
The onus is now upon us, to individually do the much we can to harvest the rain water while we still can. Otherwise, the dry season will once again inevitably ruin our lives. So will the rainy season eventually.
The time is now. Therefore, seize the day and do the needful.
What the heck have you done lately?
