From Olivier Hamerlynck, Kenya wetlands biodiversity research team
Fred Pearce rightly points out that what we call land-grabbing is often also water-grabbing, and calls for global estimates of the problem (2 March, p 28). Grabbing is not new, so calculations should look beyond the recent rush by investors for land and water in river basins, and should include historical data.
For example, the recent killing of more than 150 people in clashes over resources in Kenya’s Tana Delta are linked to dam construction and failed large-scale irrigation schemes in the 1980s and 1990s. This reduced the flooded area in the delta. Instead of 100,000 users fishing, cultivating and grazing 200,000 hectares, there are now 200,000 users trying to do the same on 100,000 hectares.
Water grabs are even more difficult to quantify because some investors hold off cultivating their land while they watch global markets to determine where the biggest profits can be made.
So yes, we need to do the calculations Pearce suggests, but include the past and the worst-case scenario, in which dormant plans are implemented. And we need to be aware of the suffering it has caused, still causes and will cause vulnerable people who are not to blame for climate change.
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Nairobi, Kenya
