Absalom was interviewed by Climate Stories Ambassador,Nyendo Kinyonga. The interview was conducted in Swahiliand the English translation appears below:

My name is Absalom David Kinyonga.I live in Morogoro, Tanzania.

It’s true. There is a big change in the weather, especially in the rain.For example, this year, rain has been very scarce. We expected it to rainearly, from November to December. It didn’t rain. It started raining inFebruary. It did not rain much, only until March. So, you will see that thecrops didn’t grow well as expected. Those which had germinated weredestroyed, and they started to wither because there was no more rain inApril.Yes. Yes. The rivers dried up.  There was a time when the rivers didn’t havewater. And then later there were floods, and the rivers later dried up again. Iremember that, even for the animals, the neighbors here moved around to graze. Many animals died. You’d see that elephants were roaming about from the forest into the cities in search of pastures.It will be greatly affected because we will not be able to harvest produce from the farming we do. That’s because the crops won’t grow as desired. Crops grow well only for a short time, and then there is a scarcity of rain. Therefore we will be affected by famine.Yes. Because with heavy rains over a short period of time, you find that the changes in climate result in flooding, and then the rain goes away. And the rain doesn’t come in the seasons it did in previous years. Climate change is due to the destruction of forests and careless farming near river banks etc., which causes erosion, which is eroded to rivers and puts a lot of mud such that trees and leaves do not grow well. And weeds grow in the water, which greatly affects the weather.In my opinion, I think it will greatly affect the future because we see that some parts have started to—some islands have started flooding because of the weather. Because the water cycles are controlled by the presence of trees. Trees prevent water erosion. They absorb water in the forests. But now there are no trees in the forests. What will stop water erosion? Thus they turn into deserts. We create deserts ourselves through agriculture, housing construction, and so on.​Frankly, where we are headed, the future seems to have a lot of challenges. We see an example in Ethiopia, Somalia, and elsewhere. It has even come to the nearby Kenya, where deserts are increasing due to lack of rain. And rain is attracted by trees. Now, I see that the professional systems aren’t doing enough follow-up. Why can’t people be hired to do the activity of planting trees and taking care of them by watering all of them? Or the central governments in villages, estates, etc. should manage them.

(Translation by Hannah Kwirikia)