Global Warming is Flooding African Villages

The negative effects of Global Warming can be experienced all over the world. The consequences of this problem are especially felt in Ngomeni, a village in Nairobi. The strong currents and rising sea levels have left many without shelter. Another problem this is creating is that fishermen are left without a job and their families are starving due to the low abundance of fish. In addition, people are making the situation worse by trying to fix the problems with the wrong approaches. One fisherman is trying to put up walls of rubbish close to the water in order to block the water from flooding the village.

The biggest issue that can be observed in this case is a general lack of education throughout the inhabitants of the Ngomeni village. First, the fishermen believe that the abundance of fish is low due to global warming. Today, there are very little fish in the sea due to over fishing in the past centuries. Fisheries have been depleted due to direct human actions, and not through global warming. Fishermen also hope that divine intervention will save them, instead of acknowledging their negative impacts and taking the initiative to change problems on their own.
Second, the individual putting up walls of garbage realizes that the junk makes people sick (attracting mosquitoes, and polluting the water as well as the village itself). His argument is that it is better to get sick than to lose one’s house. Again, the lack of education is clearly shown here: a problem can never be solved by another problem. Medication is very sparse in Africa and Malaria is a very big issue in areas infected with mosquitoes. It is evident that a wall of garbage is not a positive long-term solution. Garbage will not hold back heavy currents and will kill and contaminate the few fish that remain around the area.

There are clearly many solutions that almost anyone could think of. A few examples could be to address global warming a lot more aggressively, to educate African people, and to relocate the people living in this village. However, it takes time and money to do all these things and only efficient politicians in both Africa and Western countries will slowly but surely help resolve these issues.