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MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 HEALTH & SCIENCE Syria farmers fear IS to flood Euphrates villages TUWAYHINA, Syria: Syrian farmers near could be under water,” said Abu Hussein, advanced to just five kilometres from the (OCHA) says water levels of the Euphrates much longer, will have serious repercus- the Euphrates river are terrified the 67. He spoke to AFP in Tuwayhina, a town. “We’re hearing that Daesh is plan- have risen 10 m since late January. The sions on the dam”. The source, who Islamic State group will literally open the small village that was recently recap- ning on blowing up the Tabqa dam,” said UN said the increase was “partly due to spoke on condition of anonymity out of floodgates to defend its stronghold tured by the US-backed Syrian Raheel Hassan Mahmoud, 58, in the arid heavy rainfall and snow”. But it also point- fear of reprisals by IS, said the dam was Raqqa, drowning their tiny villages in the Democratic Forces east of the river and village of Bir Hamad, using an Arabic ed the finger at air strikes near the dam, at risk of damage as the fighting draws process. Water levels of the Euphrates, around 10 km from the dam. Abu acronym for IS. “If this happens, it means “which, if further damaged, could lead to near - but so was his team. which snakes down through northern Hussein said “hundreds of villages and most of Raqa and Deir Ezzor will drown, massive scale flooding across Raqqa and “The technicians will be forced to flee Syria and east into Iraq, have shot up fields” could be submerged if IS opens while other towns die of thirst and crops as far away as Deir Ezzor” province to the in order to escape death. This is another over the past month near the militant the gates of the dam, which lies around and livestock die,” he told AFP. southeast. danger, because the dam cannot be left group’s de facto capital, Raqqa city. 50 km upstream from Raqqa city. “They Any further rises in the water level or without someone controlling it,” the Residents of the modest farming villages don’t even fear God. And if someone ‘Catastrophic implications’ damage to the Tabqa dam “would have source warned. Before Syria’s conflict scattered on the river’s eastern bank say doesn’t fear God, then I’m afraid of him.” Hassan, a 35-year-old in nearby Bir catastrophic humanitarian implications erupted in 2011, about 40,000 people they are afraid the jihadists will destroy The Tabqa dam sits 500 m from the Hassan, said he expected IS would flood in all areas downstream”, the UN warned. lived in Tabqa, according to geography the Tabqa dam, Syria’s largest, to slow eponymous town, an IS stronghold since the villages as a last resort. “It could open The SDF’s drive for Raqa is backed by air expert Fabrice Balanche. Another 20,000 advancing anti-IS forces. 2014 where many of its most senior up the dam’s gates to cover itself as it strikes from the US-led coalition bomb- lived in the smaller city of Thawrah, just “If IS goes through with its threat of commanders are based. Tabqa is a key withdraws, in case it’s no longer able to ing jihadists in Iraq and Syria. A member south of the dam. Construction of the blowing up the Tabqa dam, then all areas target of the SDF’s months-long drive for resist in the area,” he said. The UN’s of the Syrian team still working at the Tabqa dam was completed in 1973 with around the southern part of the river Raqa, and its fighters have already humanitarian coordination agency dam warned that “the battle, if it lasts help from the Soviet Union. —AFP Bringing water to Kenya’s drought-stricken wildlife VOI, Kenya: In a wildlife sanctuary drink up to 190 liters of water in $200,000 - most of that in the past water pumps, they see the swirling in southern Kenya the relentless one sitting - have in recent months two weeks, as word spread about snake tracks in the sand. Desperate sun has bleached savannah grasses carried out often deadly raids on Mwalua’s initiative. “It has blown for water and a cool place to shel- and dried up rivers, turning water villages in search of water. To the my mind,” said Mwalua, who plans ter as drought and climate change holes first into muddy pits and now, majority of locals struggling to sur- to buy his own water truck and dig affect their habitat, snakes increas- dust bowls. Herds of elephant, buf- vive the failure of their crops, these a borehole in the park. ingly come into contact with peo- falo and zebra have gathered near wildlife neighbors are little more Meanwhile the David Sheldrick ple. As a result, snakebites have one of the holes, where for six than a menace and competition for Wildlife Trust - famed for rearing shot up so much in recent years months, pea farmer Patrick Mwalua land and resources. orphan elephants - has now joined that the Kenya Wildlife Service has been delivering water to them him in trucking in water to the (KWS) is trying to amend a law to in a rented blue truck. After the ‘The animals come running’ water hole. In a sign of the crisis stop having to compensate those rains failed for the third time in However Mwalua believes it is the region faces, the charity has bitten, which costs millions of November, Mwalua was so dis- crucial to protect the wildlife, argu- drilled 13 boreholes over the years, euros per year. tressed by the obviously weak and ing “we are the voice of the ani- Angela Sheldrick, who runs the thirsty animals that he began seek- mals”. He reached out to foreigners, trust, told AFP. Deadlier than poaching The main water source for Tsavo MONROVIA: James Harris, the husband of Salome Karwah, looks at pictures West is Lake Jipe, which straddles of his wedding day in his home on March 2, 2017. —AFP the border with Tanzania. According to Kipongoso, its level has dropped 10 m in a decade. “At the same rate it means in another Liberian icon dies giving four or five years it will be a swamp, in another 15 years it will birth after surviving Ebola be a dust bowl. That means Tsavo West is dead, finished,” he warned. MONROVIA: In Nov 2014, Salome Karwah and Karwah was dead shortly afterwards. He blames the water problems on of Liberia graced the cover of Time maga- “My wife was an Ebola survivor. She con- “sheer human activity” in catch- zine as a symbol of strength and humanity tracted the virus during the outbreak and ment areas. In the nearby after surviving Ebola and using her experi- she recovered,” Harris said, bouncing the Amboseli park, during the 2009 ence to help others with the virus. But last healthy new baby on his knee. “She saved drought, 14 elephants were killed month, Karwah died shortly after giving lives, she held babies who had Ebola, and by poachers, while another 99 birth to her fourth child - and her husband she helped them to get better. She did not died because of lack of water, blames the stigma attached to Ebola. “My deserve this kind of treatment.” according to KWS figures. wife died because she was not catered to Karwah lost her parents, brother, aunts, “What all that means is we need by nurses and doctors. The reason, I uncles, cousins and a niece to Ebola, now to stop focusing on poaching believe, is because she is an Ebola sur- according to Time. In an article for The and start facing the imminent vivor,” James Harris said. “I am saying this Guardian in Oct 2014, Karwah wrote of the catastrophe which is the mass because I heard some nurses telling Ebola survivors she helped: “I help them death of elephants and wildlife friends not to go near my wife because she with all my might because I understand from lack of water,” Kipongoso said. is a survivor.” the experience - I’ve been through the “The only way you can do that is The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa very same thing.” Her photograph was cho- landscape rehabilitation,” he said, starting in 2013, which hit Liberia the hard- sen for the cover of Time when those fight- referring to reverting the land to its est, infected nearly 29,000 people by con- ing the Ebola outbreak were named per- state before human activity servative estimates, killing more than a son of the year. The hospital has refused to changed it. third. Karwah worked as a counsellor for comment on her death, but Liberia’s chief Buffalo approach a watering hole after a bowser water tanker delivers water to thirsty wildlife at Mwalua’s undertaking is Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) after medical officer, Francis Kateh, told AFP that the Tsavo-west national park, after traveling 70 km from the town of Voi, approximately 400 km exhausting. Bleary-eyed, he eats a recovering from Ebola in the summer of the authorities were investigating the case. southeast of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, on Oct 19, 2016. —AFP quick breakfast of Swahili sweet 2014, helping others to cope with the psy- Karwah’s brother, Reginald Karwah, bun and tea before embarking on chological toll of the hemorrhagic fever. said her body was tested for Ebola and ing donations to bring water to the who had participated in a conser- Snakebites the 70-km journey.