英国卫报：肯尼亚的学校有河马和鳄鱼出没(7)（在线收听）

The elders had noticed the lake increasing in size, and through their fishing expeditions, they knew that it was becoming deeper, too.

长者们注意到湖水越来越大，通过他们的捕鱼活动，他们知道湖水也越来越深。

They told me about a road that had last been used 10 years ago, before it went underwater, and predicted that the road I had taken to come to Luyeni would also soon be underwater.

他们告诉我，这一条路最后一次使用是在10年前，当时还没被水淹没，并预测我到鲁耶尼来的那条路也将很快被淹没。

They knew, too, that this is not solely a Turkana phenomenon; they had heard that the same thing was happening in other Rift valley lakes, as far away as Kisumu.

他们也知道，这不仅仅是图尔卡纳的现象；他们听说同样的事情也发生在其他裂谷湖泊，远至基苏木。

The elders had their own theories about what was happening to their lake, Mpaso, in the local El Molo language.

长老们对他们的湖泊Mpaso（用当地的El Molo语）发生的事情有自己的见解。

"Maybe there's a broken spring in the ground, and the rocks have cracked, so it's throwing water up," one of them said.

"他们中的一个人说："也许地下有一个断裂的泉眼，岩石已经开裂，所以水涌了上来。

Maybe River Omo in Ethiopia is the one with the crack, another elder offered.

也许埃塞俄比亚的奥莫河就是有裂缝的那条河，另一位长者提出。

In August 2021, the Ministry of Environment told the media that once the multiagency report on the lakes was published, the Kenyan government would be appealing to the international community for assistance.

2021年8月，肯尼亚环境部告诉媒体，一旦多机构发布关于湖泊的报告，肯尼亚政府将向国际社会呼吁提供援助。

In the short-term, 3bn shillings (20.1m pounds) was needed.

在短期内，需要30亿先令（2010万英镑）。

But a number of people on the team that prepared the report shared with me their scepticism about the government's interest in helping the victims of the rising lakes.

但是，编写报告的团队中的一些人与我分享了他们对政府是否有兴趣帮助湖泊上涨受害者持怀疑态度。

Instead, they suggested, what really motivated Kenya's notoriously corrupt political class was the prospect of international donations.

他们认为，真正激励肯尼亚臭名昭著的腐败政治阶层的是国际捐赠。

After all, these lakes had not risen in secret.

毕竟，这些湖泊并不是秘密上升的。

They had been rising steadily for 10 years.

它们已经稳定地上升了10年。

Only when the UN Environment Program published its own report about Lake Turkana in July 2021, and the prospect of foreign aid became more likely, did Kenya's politicians really become interested.

只有当联合国环境规划署在2021年7月公布了自己关于图尔卡纳湖的报告，并且外国援助变得更有可能时，肯尼亚的政治家们才真正开始感兴趣。

A number of people I spoke to were angry at the apparent insinuation that help was meant to come from the international community, rather than from the Kenyan government itself.

与我交谈的一些人对这种明显的暗示感到愤怒，即帮助要来自国际社会，而不是来自肯尼亚政府本身。

The government, Okeyo had told me in his office in Marigat, did not care about the plight of minority communities such as those who live around Lake Baringo.

奥凯奥在他位于马里加特的办公室里告诉我，政府并不关心少数民族社区的困境，比如那些生活在巴林戈湖周围的人。

In October 2021, the government finally released the report.

2021年10月，政府终于发布了该报告。

While allowing for the possibility that tectonic activity was partly responsible, it stated that greater levels of rainfall, caused by the climate crisis, was the main cause.

虽然认为构造活动是部分原因，但它指出，气候危机造成的更大降雨量是主要原因。

Other forms of human interference with the environment – such as deforestation – had also led to landslides and increased water runoff, which had in turn contributed to the rising water levels.

其他形式的人类对环境的干扰--如砍伐森林--也导致了山体滑坡和水径流增加，这反过来又导致了水位上升。

The report noted that nearly 400,000 Kenyans had been displaced, and that they required "urgent humanitarian assistance".

报告指出，近40万肯尼亚人流离失所，他们需要 "紧急人道主义援助"。

The impact was particularly severe around Lakes Victoria, Naivasha and Baringo, which support densely populated areas.

维多利亚湖、奈瓦沙湖和巴林戈湖周围的影响尤其严重，这些地区养育着稠密的人口。

On the edge of Lake Naivasha, about 50 miles west of Nairobi, I visited a settlement named Kihoto, where 4,000 families had been displaced.

在内罗毕以西约50英里的奈瓦沙湖边，我访问了一个名为Kihoto的定居点，那里有4000个家庭流离失所。

There I waded through the water with a landlord named Gideon, who had stayed in the area after the flooding in order to guard his houses, which were now empty.

在那里，我和一位名叫吉迪恩的房主一起涉水而行，他在洪水过后一直留在该地区，以保护他的房屋，现在这些房屋已经空了。

On the news, he had seen government representatives claim that relief food had been given to the residents of Kihoto, but he said that hadn't received any.

在新闻中，他看到政府代表声称已经向基霍托的居民提供了救济食品，但他说他没有收到任何食品。

This was a common refrain as I traversed the country.

这是我在全国旅行时经常听到的一句话。