How we can sail through El Nino unscathed

I enjoy a jog every now and then, especially cross-country runs. Of late, this has grown into an addiction, albeit a healthy one. There is nothing like settling into a rhythmic pace as you huff and puff the cold crisp air of the morning or evening. Then there is the sense of achievement that comes at the end of the run and the ‘chiseling out’ of your body into shape. However, my little fun has been cut short in a rather rough and sudden way by the erratic onset of the rains. I love rains but these ones have completely disrupted my training programme, if it is mostly due to their unpredictability, it is either raining or threatening to rain. I have to do things differently; I have to come up with innovative ways of keeping my training program on track. Predictions abound that these are the dreaded El Niño rains. They seem spot on. For one, normal rains have a predictable pattern; it rains either in the morning or in the afternoon, consistently. These ones have no sequence about them, they come any time and they pour. Take for example last weekend, Kigali was almost entirely wet, cold and gloomy. It was not business as usual; not for our vibrant wedding parties and certainly not for me. This newspaper has, in different articles, given a detailed, if sometimes graphic outlook of this el Niño concept and its resultant direct and indirect consequences. In addition the Ministry of Disaster management and Refugee affairs (MIDIMAR) and its partners have all put in place measures to combat El Niño effects. Hopefully, they are sufficient. However, we seem to have not looked beyond this concept as a catastrophe. Two things are of specific concern, viz: the way we approach this whole El Niño issue and the thought (or lack thereof) of the period that follows, La Nina. Are El Niño rains all bad? All our preparations are geared to manage a disaster. Let us break things down; El Niño in all its glory brings a deluge, destructively so. The deluge is but water, lots of water, and we all know water is life. We should think logically beyond panic. Accompanying our disaster preparations should be how we can harvest and use El Niño rains for our own good. Taps in Kigali have been dry for some time. This has been attributed to hot and dry season that we have come through. That being the case, then the logical thing would be to think of where and how will we preserve and use all that water in ways that will benefit us and mitigate our water needs especially because after El Niño comes La Niña’s dry spell. We are encouraging people who live in low lying areas to move out for their own good. The next sensible thing would be to make dams in these areas to preserve the water. Among the issues raised about El Niño is a subsequent food shortage. But there are crops that require a lot of water like rice that should thrive. Are we putting into place measures to ensure bumper harvest in these? It is hopeful that the hydroelectric power plant on Nyabarongo River will also benefit from this and enable us to get more electricity on our grid for, say, six months succeeding the El Niño? That would be huge for the economy. The counter argument to this line of thought will most likely be our low levels of technology and the quintessential lack of funds. As we embrace these arguments, we should spare thought for the ancient Egyptians and how they harnessed the flooding Nile to create a great civilization. It might be a mindset problem. What follows El Niño is its counterpart La Niña. We will, in our neck of the woods, experience drier than normal conditions between December and February, or so experts predict. We must prepare for this. Otherwise we will go through that familiar cycle of complaining about just every seasonal turn. My training exercises will have to continue, El Niño or not. What will change is the schedule and the format. So must our lives. Season should not be a problem. The problem arises from how we counter, mitigate and indeed harness it to ensure that we come out of each better. We ought, to a large extent, control our environment. It requires agility and flexibility in our response. Sam Kebongo is a Project Management and Entrepreneurship Development Consultant based in Kigali. sam.kebongo@gmail.com

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How we can sail through El Nino unscathed