water tect 12-1-09 water ?

ISIOLO, KENYA — Former neighboring tribes now are warring over dwindling water supplies and pasture, and the United Nations estimates at least 400 in northern Kenya have died this year, a November 29 Chicago Tribune report said.

The government is accused of fueling the war by taking sides and replacing combatants’ spears and arrows with more sophisticated weapons.

According to the report, “Tales of conflict emerging from this remote, arid region of Kenya have disturbing echoes of the lethal building blocks that turned Darfur into a killing ground in western Sudan.”

Expert Richard Odingo, vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a global scientific body that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore, referred to Darfur, saying, “Every dry area has the potential to be a flash point if we are not careful.”

The story noted that as deserts encroach in Sudan, rainfall declines in the Horn of Africa and freshwater evaporation in the south continues.

“Climate change amplifies and escalates vulnerability. It doesn’t mean that conflict is inevitable, but it’s much more likely,” Achim Steiner, director of the UN Environment Program, said in the story.

To read the full story, click here.