KENYA: ECOLOGICAL AND WATER FOOTPRINT

Environment   Sep 1, 2017 by jana

Our continent isn't as wealthy in terms of infrastructure and development compared to others, and a large percentage of its population is occupied by low income individuals as well as ones who earn no income whatsoever. This therefore means that a good sum of people in Africa live under conditions ruled by poverty. Through this, you can only imagine the shock that we each experienced as soon as we received our results from the simulations we did. This immediate reaction opened up our eyes to the impact we have on climate change. It is only now that we have come to realize that we contribute greatly to the issue and it is simply as a result of our lifestyles -influenced by the social classes society has placed us in.

When we tried the water footprint calculator we were shocked by how much water we consume. Not believing the results we decided to do more research but we still came up with the same amount. According to our results most water was spent on food and the rest was spent on domestic things and other purposes.

When comparing Kenya’s result to the world we found out that the worlds average is 4,000,000,000,000,000 liters and Kenya's is 15,800,000 liters a year. According to the UN, it is said that the average human requires 50 liters of water a day to prepare meals and for basic personal hygiene. In Africa sadly, the average human only gets 20 liters. This is only 7,300 liters compared to the 18,250 required

From our results our average was 3, 44,000 liters per year. The annual average in Kenya is 15,800,000 liters. So if we compare our results with the Kenyan average each of us account for 21% while with the world’s average is 0.000000009%.Thus we ended up realizing how much damage we are causing our planet.

We all agreed that it is possible for us to reduce our water intake in terms of domestic use such as cleaning. This does not mean that we need to shower less or wash dishes less; just spend less time carrying out such tasks and making sure not to waste water when doing these errands. For example; instead of leaving the tap running while brushing our teeth, we just close and only Open when necessary, Or reducing the amount of times laundry is done and many more.

When we tried the ecological footprint, we could not decide on a specific area that surprised us because most did. This is due to the fact that most of the sectors for example goods, mobility, shelter and food had large footprints of us. When looking at these sectors we came to notice something important and that is most of these areas are controlled by the things we do. As a result we were able to see the areas we need to tackle in order to combat climate change. Some of the things we can do include: reduce the amount of times we use polluting vehicles and instead rely on things like bicycles; use polluting fuels such as paraffin (cooking) responsibly thus avoiding a lot of purchase and pollution; and evading anything that can lead to wastage of energy such as electricity, and relying more on renewable resources such as sunlight during the day. By the reduction of individual footprints, I feel like climate change can be affected. However they are some limits. Reduction of one person’s individual footprint alone won't make any difference. It requires the whole world for anything to happen. Use of planes cannot be totally stopped neither can cars. Relying on renewable energy resources might be costly and not that efficient compared to fossil fuels. As for the possibilities ,if one is dedicated they can start using renewable energy resources regardless. They can also start using bikes and etc

our ecological footprint is 4.4

Carbon 6.2

Location with lower carbon footprint - Samoa * as of 2009

This country utilizes energy from wind and coconut oil while we still obtain most of our energy from fossil fuels e.g firewood, coal etc. Samoa followed the example of the Maldives and proclaimed the objective of "a carbon neutral economy" by 2020. They contribute to less than 0.01 of the total carbon dioxide emissions. Kenya contributed to 0.5%. Kenya could learn to utilize other sources of energy such as solar in areas like Turkana and biogas for cooking. Other measures could also be taken in order to reduce our carbon emissions.

We could reduce our footprint by our means of transport. Instead of using 5 cars to go to the same area, we could carpool and save some fuel and reduce emissions of Co2. Even through the amounts of trash we produce, we could learn to recycle more, a plastic bottle could be used more than once and the same goes for an empty margarine container. It may seem impossible to reduce our carbon footprint in terms of food consumption but we could grow our own food, some greens in the garden, visit the local butcher instead of dashing for the meat already in cans or packages at the supermarket, or even support our local dairy farmer.

. In Kenya our average ecological footprint is 1.03 hectares per person, ours was 4.4. Looking at the community over here we would assume almost everyone's ecological footprint would be around 4.4 since many people have similar lifestyles.

These simulations relate a lot to our community because most of the questions asked can be easily answered. However at the same time Kenya is full of poverty and some people may not be able to answer the questions thus they may seem quite irrelevant to some.

Each of us thought that in order to combat climate change, we would need to take "huge" steps that would be recognised by many. This mindset has been changed by the results from our ecological and water footprints, since we have now truly realised that charity does begin at home. We as individuals have decided to tackle climate change head on by simply changing our lifestyle decisions as stated above. One does not need to perform grand gestures to make a difference; instead, the little things we do go a long way. This would not have dawned on us if we hadn't done the simulations

We feel that we are responsible for parts such as food, mobility and goods since they are in our control. We can easily change our eating habits as well as our means of transport and the amount of goods we purchase. These simulations have enabled us to realize that tackling climate change begins with us. We first need to take action in our own lives before blaming others. It has finally dawned on us how much we contribute to climate change as well as showing us where to being to combat this issue. If we can all start making changes in our lifestyles so much greatness can happen.

Done by: Melissa Joe, Lisa Ndegwa, Victor Kollie, Tracy Cherotich and Jana Sharif

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