The Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute issued an alert at the end of the week. The long rainy season has started and the country, like the entire region, is once again faced with torrential rainfall, due to the El Niño phenomenon.
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With our correspondent in Nairobi, Gaëlle Laleix
Streets transformed into rivers, cars that float like boats, restaurants with their feet in the water… The Kenyan coast is once again subject to flooding.
This phenomenon of rising water levels began last week, explains the Marine Fisheries Research Institute of Kenya. It was amplified Thursday by the new moon and powerful winds which caused waves more than 4 meters high.
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But the real problem is El Nino: a cyclical climatic phenomenon that causes heavy rains from the Pacific Ocean. Rainfall in recent days in Kenya has swollen the rivers of the highlands, which are now carrying much more water than the Indian Ocean can absorb.
For the Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya had not experienced such a rise in water levels since 1997/1998, years also marked by El Nino.
In reality, all African countries in the Indian Ocean are at risk of strong erosion. According to the meteorological institute of IGAD, the regional organization for the Horn of Africa, the Indian Ocean rises by around 5 mm per year, when the global average is 3 mm.
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