Coastal towns risk being swallowed as ocean tide rises

Lamu town and several hotels along the coastline are likely to be swallowed by the ocean as the sea level rises due to the effects of climate change.

Experts warn that beach hotels, roads and homes in Mombasa and Lamu counties may have to give way to the raging waters as Kenya, and many other developing countries, do not have the capacity to counter the phenomenon, according to a report in the Daily Nation.

By extension, the Ksh13 billion Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project runs the risk of collapsing from the same effect. Lamu — a UNESCO heritage site and a tourist attraction that is also home to the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa — might not exist by the end of the century.

The issue is discussed in a scientific paper titled “Rethinking Coastal Design and Planning: Integrated Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessments, Case of Mombasa and Lamu Islands” by Valentine Ochanda of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Ms Ochanda recommends a “rethinking of coastal design and planning, with regards to sea level rise.” She warned that in the event of sea storms, coastal inhabitants will be exposed to severe flooding.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Global Mean Sea Level has risen by 10 to 20 centimetres. However, the annual rise over the past 20 years has been 3.2 millimetres per year.This is roughly twice the average speed of the earlier 80 years.

This has been brought on due to the burning of fossil fuels and human activities that have released large amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, in turn increasing the atmospheric heat.

Mombasa has, in recent months experienced flooding, after prolonged rains, which has led to deaths and displacement of at least 750 families. The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) asked the government to set up marine disaster teams in the region.

KAHC Coast Vice-Chairman Silas Kiti said counties in coast lacked the capacity to adequately respond to maritime disasters.

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