Climate change in Kenya: drought and water insecurity
Alessio Paduano
Alessio PaduanoBorn in Naples in 1984, Alessio Paduano won a scholarship to study at Paris Diderot University for a year. In 2007, he worked for various Italian newspapers as a writer and photographer. In 2009, he graduated in sociology from Naples Federico II University after writing his thesis in journalism. That same year, he obtained in Italy his registration with the National Order of Journalists and his press card. In 2010, he studied photojournalism at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts. Some of his photographs have been exhibited throughout the world, including at Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli, Castel dell'Ovo, Bibbiena biennial and Photolux Festival (Italy), Visa pour l’image (France), Palm Springs Photo Festival (California, US), Historical Museum (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Tel Aviv Photo Fair (Israel), and ICA Space (Japan). Major national and international newspapers and magazines have published some of his shots. These periodicals include Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Stern, Der Spiegel, El País, Le Monde, Paris Match, Newsweek, The Guardian, Internazionale and La Stampa. His photographs have also been used by television channels, including CNN, the BBC and Bloomberg. His work has earned him multiple awards including: Krzysztof Miller Prize (2021), the Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award (2021), Picture of the Year (2019), the Siena International Photo Awards (2019).
When the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023, Alessio Paduano was there on the ground, during a disaster that was essentially a cross-border catastrophe in a geopolitically sensitive region. He brought back these powerful, masterfully taken photographs which not only reveal the earthquake’s impact but also capture the rescue workers’ efforts and the distress of survivors. The result is that we get to look back at events now absent from the media but whose shockwaves are still felt today – albeit it metaphorically, although who knows when the earth might start shaking again. After all, keeping memories alive is the purpose of photography too.
Alessio Paduano is a photographer well known to our readers now. We discovered his work in 2023 through his photographic reportage from Turkey in the wake of the earthquake that hit the country’s Syrian border area on 6 February that year. That reportage won the 2024 Kolga Tbilisi Photo award for best reportage. And in 2024, Alessio took us to Senegal, where the rise in sea levels, caused by climate change, is threatening the country’s coasts.
His new work takes us to Kenya, one of the countries most affected by climate change. Drought, a phenomenon that once followed predictable seasonal cycles, has become increasingly frequent and intense. According to the United Nations, what the Kenyan people are experiencing at this historical stage is the worst water crisis in the last forty years and is leaving millions of people without stable access to safe water sources. Rivers, lakes and aquifers are slowly drying up. Water scarcity is having especially devastating effects in arid and semi-arid regions – about 80% of the national territory – where women and children are forced to travel ever greater distances each day to collect water from the subsoil, which is not clean and causes infections and diseases. The persistent absence of rain and the increase in temperatures have made the land uncultivable, exhausted food supplies rapidly, killed livestock and compromised the food security of over four million people.
Children eat leaves from an Esekon tree in the village of Loreng’elop in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 21 October 2024. Due to the food insecurity caused by the severe drought, children living in the hot, dry areas of Kenya are forced to eat only the leaves of the trees for very long periods and, for this reason, can easily contract infections or diseases.
Deborah (centre), 27 years old, rests on a bed beside her 1-day-old son Bethwel and her mother Nachopu (left), while a little girl (right) watches them, at Katilu Sub-County Hospital in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 18 October 2024. Due to the severe drought affecting the country, Deborah and her family, including her newborn son, are forced to drink water they fetch from underground, which is not clean and often causes infections or diseases, including dysentery, a major cause of death among children under 5.
A child fetches water from the dried-up River Turkwel in the village of Chok Chok in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 14 October 2024.
Women and children wait for their turn outside Kalokol Gok Health Centre in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 16 October 2024. Kalokol Gok Health Centre welcomes women and children from surrounding villages to provide them with medicines and food supplements and to monitor their health conditions, which are put at risk by the severe drought affecting the country.
Ariong, 60 years old, lies on a bed after doctors diagnosed him with anaemia and low blood pressure at Katilu Sub-County Hospital in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 18 October 2024. The severe drought in Kenya is causing food insecurity and difficulty in accessing water. These two factors, in addition to high temperatures, are the main causes of low blood pressure and anaemia, especially in older people.
Vivian, 3 years old, suffering from malaria, cries as a doctor takes her temperature and her mother Gladys holds her in her arms inside the examination room of Kangatosa Health Centre in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 19 October 2024. Little girls often go fetching water with their mothers in areas where stagnant pools of water form and mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite proliferate. Over the past three years, Kenya has suffered from intense drought, partly caused by global warming, which also creates favourable conditions for the development of these mosquitoes.
A general view of the dried-up River Turkwel in the village of Chok Chok in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 14 October 2024. Kenya’s rivers are drying up rapidly, with low rainfall and global warming among the main causes of this phenomenon.
Two women rest on the dried-up Kalotumum riverbed, before starting to fetch water in Kerio in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 15 October 2024. Due to the severe drought affecting the country, many people are forced to drink water they fetch from underground, which is not clean and often causes infections or diseases.
Kennedy Ekalimon, manager of the “Nutrition Programme”, measures the height of a child at Chok Chok Dispensary in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 14 October 2024. Chok Chok Dispensary was founded in 2016 by the Turkana County Government. Thanks to the Nutrition Programme, it welcomes women and children from the surrounding villages once a week to provide them with medicines and food supplements and to monitor their health conditions, which are put at risk by the severe drought affecting the country.
A man (left) drinks water from a canister while another man (right) fills up water canisters using a mechanical extractor placed on the dried-up Napasinyang riverbed in Kalokol in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 15 October 2024. Some people have turned the severe drought affecting the country into a real business, selling each 20-litre water tank for 5 Kenyan shillings (approx. 0,04 euros). However, the water they fetch from underground is not clean and often causes infections or diseases.
Women fetch water from the dried-up Kalotumum River in Kerio, located in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on October 17, 2024. Due to the severe drought that is affecting the country, many people are forced to drink water that they fetch from the underground, which is not clean and often causes infections or diseases. According to a 2023 UN Water Development Report, groundwater levels are falling, forcing some communities to drill wells twice as deep as they were a decade ago.
Doum palm trees submerged by the waters of Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, on 15 October 2024. The water level of Lake Turkana is rising rapidly. This complex phenomenon is linked to climate change, with rare but abundant and violent rainfall, but also to underground springs and movements of tectonic plates that influence water flows, contributing to the rise in water levels.
Selina holds her one-week-old daughter, Akaru, as her father Emanikor rests near the hut where they live in Chok Chok village, located in Turkana County, northwest Kenya, on 14 October 2024. Due to the severe drought that is affecting the country, Selina and her family are forced to drink water that they fetch from the nearest river, located about 15 kilometres from their village, which is not clean and often causes infections or diseases, including dysentery, a leading cause of death among children under 5.
A child sits on a road in the village of Katapokori, northwest Kenya, on 16 October 2024. Katapokori is one of the villages most affected by the severe drought in Kenya that is causing food insecurity and difficulty in accessing water.
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