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WORLD> Africa
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Melting Kilimanjaro glaciers flood farms
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-01 15:04 DAR ES SALAAM -- Farmers near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro have been reporting floods caused by the melting Kilimanjaro glaciers even during the dry season of the year.
Local English newspaper The African on Monday quoted a Mwanga farmer as saying that the amount of water from the mountain had been enormous this year to have submerged farms and roads. "I have never seen such a thing for the last 45 years of my life," said Mwanganga Juma who added that the situation was even worse at Kapori near the main road leading up to Marangu where all the farms are under water. Irrigation technician Wilfred Mangale explained to the newspaper that this year's melting snow on the mountain was sending more water volume down than the area had got during the heaviest of all rainy seasons in the past. Another local farmer, Aziz Kavugha Mchomvu, said that even the underground water table had been raised by the floods. "In the past we used to dig over five meters deep to get water, " said the farmer, "but now people find water at only 1.5 meters underground." More floods may occur during the dry seasons in future as the global warming is blamed for causing the glaciers and snow caps on Mount Kilimanjaro to melt. |
