The tourist boats that typically navigate Kenya\u2019s renowned Lake Naivasha have recently taken on a new role: rescuing hundreds from inundated homes.<\/p>\n
Though the lake\u2019s water level has been increasing for more than a decade with repeated flooding, residents of the modest Kihoto district are stunned by this year\u2019s unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t happened like this before,\u201d said resident Rose Alero.<\/p>\n
According to local officials, the Rift Valley lake has advanced an unprecedented 1.5km (about 1 mile) inland.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are suffering,\u201d said Alero, a 51-year-old grandmother, noting that many neighbours have fallen ill.<\/p>\n
In her home, water reaches waist height, while throughout the district, toilets are overflowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are stuck \u2026 they have nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The devastation is widespread: hundreds of homes are completely underwater, churches are destroyed, and police stations are submerged, surrounded by floating vegetation.<\/p>\n
During one sudden water surge, children evacuated a school on improvised rafts.<\/p>\n
Joyce Cheche, Nakuru County\u2019s disaster risk management head, estimates 7,000 people have been displaced by the rising waters, which also impact wildlife and threaten tourism and commerce.<\/p>\n
The county has provided transport assistance and implemented health measures, Cheche said, though financial compensation has not been offered yet.<\/p>\n
Workers in the crucial flower export sector are avoiding work, fearing cholera and landslides.<\/p>\n
She also highlighted the danger of encounters with the lake\u2019s numerous hippos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t see it coming,\u201d Cheche admitted.<\/p>\n
At the lake\u2019s edge, bare acacia trunks that were once lush now stand submerged in waters advancing about 1 metre (3.3 feet) daily.<\/p>\n
This phenomenon affects other Rift Valley lakes and has displaced hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n
Numerous studies primarily attribute this to increased rainfall driven by climate change.<\/p>\n
However, Kenyan geologist John Lagat, regional manager at the state-owned Geothermal Development Corporation, points to tectonics as the main cause, noting the lakes\u2019 position along a major geological fault.<\/p>\n
When English settlers arrived in the late 19th century, the lake was even larger before shifting tectonic plates reduced it to just 1km (0.6 miles) in diameter by 1921.<\/p>\n
Subsequent tectonic movements increasingly sealed underground outflows, trapping water, Lagat explained, though he acknowledged that increased rainfall and land degradation from population growth also play a \u201csubstantial\u201d role in flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very worried,\u201d said Alero from her flooded home, dreading the upcoming rainy season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t tell what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tourist boats that typically navigate Kenya\u2019s renowned Lake Naivasha have recently taken on a new role: rescuing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[190,4442,56613,273,3092,1229,862,111,43,139,69,147,4998],"class_list":{"0":"post-144755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-climate","10":"tag-climate-crisis","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-floods","13":"tag-gallery","14":"tag-kenya","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}