The East African (Nairobi) October 3, 2006
Dagi Kimani Nairobi
THEY HAVE FASCINATED travellers and local people alike for decades, but East Africa's snowcapped mountains may be just a dozen years from losing their snow crowns.
If that happens, it will be a sad end to a fascinating natural phenomenon - eternal snows on the equator - that for centuries spawned mythology, disbelief and awe dating back to the second century when Roman explorer Claudius Ptolemy wrote of the mysterious mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon in the middle of Africa.
Today, scientists are divided on exactly what is causing the decline of the glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori. Some cite global warming, while others attribute it to reduced levels of annual precipitation, the decline of the ozone layer and the earth's natural cycles. What is not in dispute, however, is that that East Africans will pay a heavy price if the unfolding scenario reaches its logical conclusion.
The snows of the three mountains act as crucial all-year reservoirs for water that irrigates millions of hectares downstream, helping to generate hydroelectricity, water the region's world-famous game parks and agricultural lands as well as serve as sources of water for human use.
In an ironic twist of fate, all three East African countries will be affected, with the Rwenzori being mainly in Uganda, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Kenya in Kenya. The impact of the recession of the glaciers on the Rwenzori, the Mountains of the Moon described by Ptolemy, will however go beyond East Africa. Rivers originating there form the headwaters of the Nile.
Rwenzori's snows are mainly found on its three peaks - Mount Stanley, Mount Speke and Mount Baker. Their recession illustrates what researchers say will eventually happen to the snows found on other mountains across the region.
According a report published in the May 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Geophysical Union, Rwenzori's glaciers have declined from about 2 square kilometres in 1987 to less than 0.96 square kilometres last year. The figures are based on field surveys and analyses of spaceborne images from Landsat 5 and 7 satellites by a team of researchers led by Richard Taylor from the University College, London.
The team also included Callist Tindimugaya from Uganda's Directorate of Water Development, Abushen Majugu from the country's Metereology department, and Andrew Muwanga and Bob Nakileza from Makerere University.
Their report: "Extrapolation of trends in glacial recession since 1906 suggests that the glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains will disappear within the next two decades."
In 2002, another survey predicted that Kilimanjaro's famous snowcap would disappear by 2020, leaving Africa's highest peak a nude rock. Similarly, scientists say that the demise of Mt Kenya's famous glaciers is now just a matter of time given the rate of their attrition.
What is particularly worrying, scientists say, is that the rate of decline of East Africa's mountain glaciers seems to be picking up. According to the report on the Ruwenzori survey, at the time of the first survey of glaciers on the mountains, which was conducted in 1906 by the Duke of Abruzzi, the glacial cover over the entire range was estimated to be 6.5 square kilometres and the lowest altitude of glaciation is thought to have reached 4,400 metres above sea level.
RWENZORI'S HIGHEST peak, Margherita on Mount Stanley, has an elevation of 5,108 metres above sea level.
"By 1990, glaciers on the Ruwenzori Mountains had receded to about 40 per cent of the extent recorded in 1955 and less than one quarter of that measured by the Duke of Abruzzi in 1906," notes the report released in May.
Scientists say that this decline will have a devastating effect on the unique alpine ecosystems of the mountains that led to the lands above 1,700 metres being gazetted as a national park in 1991 by the Ugandan government. The Rwenzori Mountains National Park was subsequently made a World Heritage Site in 1994.
The story is no different for Mount Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya. At 5,199 metres, the latter is the second highest peak in Africa. In 1997, the mountain was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
"With its rugged glacier-clad summits and forested middle slopes, Mount Kenya is one of the most impressive landscapes in East Africa," says one United Nations report. "The evolution and ecology of its afro-alpine flora also provide an outstanding example of ecological processes."
Surveys however show that its 12 glaciers are in rapid decline, as are the alpine ecosystem and forests that surround the mountain. Yet, Mount Kenya is the main source of the waters that help generate 80 per cent of the country's electricity in half a dozen power stations along the Tana, the country's largest river. The waters from the mountain, and the nearby Aberdare ranges, also help meet central Kenya's domestic water needs, as well as nourishing the world-famous Tsavo plains downstream.
Both scientists and environmentalists agree that the demise of East Africa's glaciers will deal a serious blow to the mystique of the mountains, which has inspired both local people and foreigners. In the late 19th century, few Europeans believed the tales of their explorers of snow on the equator.
That fascination has spawned the region's lucrative tourism industry, which is currently only second to South Africa's.
The pristine glaciers have also held a fascination for local people, spawning rich myths and beliefs. Among Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, Mount Kenya was regarded as the earthly home of Ngai, the creator of earth and the heavens. The snowcaps on the Rwenzori were similarly also at the centre of the traditional belief system of the local Bakonzo, who linked the Nzururu, or snow, to their deity, Kitasamba.
It is unlikely that these cultural beliefs will survive with the demise of the awe-inspiring glaciers.
Copyright © 2006 The East African.
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