「気候変動」なのであって所々で影響の仕方は違っていて

　場所によっては豪雨で常態化し、湖が拡大してしまうということもある。ケニアのこの話題の村では、湖が拡大してカバやクロコダイルまで増強されちゃって―。

BBC Kenya's Lake Baringo: Surviving hippo and crocodile attacks 6 Sep 2023　By Mercy Juma

　…カバに襲われ足の肉を食いちぎられて―漁もなかなかしづらくなってしまった漁師さんが冒頭に。カヌーごと潰されたそうな。流石に怖いので、ほかの仕事をしようとしたが、まあできるものでもなく。仕方なく漁の稼業に戻ってきたのだとか。

「Joseph Atuma had fished in Lake Baringo in Kenya since he was 12 and, despite one or two encounters with hippos and crocodiles, none had ever attacked him until one evening in September 2018, when a hippo tore through his canoe, grabbed his left leg, and ripped part of it off.

"It was hiding in the bushes, very near to the shore, a place where I wouldn't expect a hippo to be. And it caught me by surprise," the 42-year-old says.

"It sank its teeth on to the wooden canoe and into my leg. Very little meat was left on my bone, between the knee and the foot," he adds, as he shows the scars that remain.」

　どうも湖の水位は年々上がっているそうで。ボートのつなぐ先もだんだん位置を変えていく。というか湖が進んで家も学校も病院も舗装道路も漁業局の建物も呑み込んでいく。

「He says that water levels have risen over the years, and he now docks his boat on what used to be the foundation of the local church. It is now covered by the lake's waters - just like homes, schools, hospitals, tarmacked roads and even the offices of the Kenya fisheries department.」

「Environmentalists say the lake has doubled in size over the last decade because of heavy rainfall linked to climate change.」

　湖のサイズは二倍にもなった―。これも気候変動の影響だ、と。

「Residents say that with the lake getting bigger, the crocodile population has increased and the waters are now heavily infested with the predators. They say there has also been an increase in the number of hippos, who bathe near the shores and now even closer to people's homesteads.

This has increased the risk to the lives of people, and children have been dragged into the lake by crocodiles, never to be seen again.」

　足をクロコダイルに持っていかれたおばさま。旦那等々に何とか助け出してもらって命はとりとめ、六カ月ほど入院して、退院できたと思ったら―家が水没している。

「She stayed in hospital for six months, and when she was discharged, she found her home and land had been submerged by water. She now lives several kilometres away from the lake and has never gone back near its waters.」

　…これ、かなりマズい状況だが―住民は自治体を提訴したりするそうだが、いやあ、それはそれで筋が悪いというか、それしかやりようがないとはいえ、にっちもさっちもいかないというか…。