The snows of Kilimanjaro
Posted: Thursday, November 13, 2008 6:00 PM by Sarika Dani
Filed Under:
Ends of the Earth
From Ann Curry, NBC News
Arusha, Tanzania "I am a Masai," Jonas Eliau tells us.
And the Masai he says, believe Mount Kilimanjaro is dying. "We fear there will be no more water for the people, if all the snows on Kili melt."
Scientists say 84 percent of the mountain's glaciers have disappeared in less than 100 years. Climate change is the lead suspect. Since before memory, the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro have fed the rivers that sustain Tanzania's many tribes.
As our truck bounces along unpaved roads, Jonas points out a river he says is two-thirds the width it once was. He tells us there is less rain during the rainy season and wells are drying up.
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| Belinda reading at a table |
It is because of one dry well that 13-year-old Belinda Amon might have to stop going to school.
Beautiful and soft-spoken, she is a good student: "I want to be president," she told me. "Like Obama?" I ask, and she immediately grins wide, "Yes." Then she adds, "but If that doesn't work out, a doctor or a nurse." She studies in a mud-walled home with a earthen floor, right next to the buckets her mother collects water in.
Belinda is lucky to only walk 30 minutes to school and back. Some walk more than an hour each way.
We went with her today and saw how the students rushed to raise their hands each time their teacher asked a question. From the looks on their faces, all the walking here is worth it. But this school will close in five months unless enough money is raised to pipe water in from a new source now that the well has gone dry.
There is not enough water for cooking and cleaning and to have sanitary toilets. As I write about this, our news team's soundman, Bobby Lapp, points out the irony of watching me get a BlackBerry signal in a school without running toilets.
We have no idea how lucky we are until we see people struggle for things we take for granted. And in this struggle, who knew the snows of Kilimanjaro would matter so much?
For more on TODAY's Ends of the Earth series, which begins Monday, Nov. 17, click
here.
