Lake Baringo grows 70%, pushing crocodiles near homes

Lake Baringo in central Kenya has expanded by 70 percent since 2010, bringing crocodiles and hippos closer to homes and adding to risks for families, schools and tourism businesses around the lake.

AFP said its analysis of Copernicus Sentinel and NASA Landsat satellite imagery showed Lake Baringo's surface area grew from about 138 square kilometres to 234 square kilometres. Neighbouring Lake Bogoria grew by 21 percent over the same period, from 34 to 41 square kilometres.

Scientists cited extreme rainfall linked to climate change as a driver of the rise in Kenya's Rift Valley lakes. Official data says tens of thousands of people have been displaced to higher ground.

Kenya Wildlife Service senior warden Jackson Komen said crocodile attacks have risen not because there are more crocodiles, but because the lake is now closer to homesteads. He said hippo attacks have also occurred after rising water destroyed riverbank pasture areas.

Komen warned that if freshwater Lake Baringo and alkaline Lake Bogoria mix, fish, crocodiles and hippos may not survive. The distance between the two lakes is now estimated at about 10 kilometres.

Mathew Herrnegger, a scientist at Austria's University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, said satellite altimetry showed Lake Bogoria is high enough to overflow toward Lake Baringo. He said how much water will reach Baringo and what impact it will have are unclear.

The rising water has damaged tourism. AFP said it saw at least four holiday resorts engulfed by Lake Baringo, while Michael Baimet, director at the local disaster department, said tourism earnings had fallen from about $1 million a year to $200,000.

Schools have also been hit. Official records show about 12 institutions around Lakes Baringo and Bogoria have been affected, some of them completely submerged. About 240 students and staff at Kokwa Island Primary and Junior School in Marigat must cross crocodile-infested Lake Baringo, and a school official said guards had been hired because hippos and crocodiles enter the school at night.