One of the major challenges we had this year was caused by the inherent variability of flows. When we needed low flows, they were high. When we needed high flows, they were low.
We were constantly running around with several sets of 10 tiles zip-tied to a metal frame, trying to keep them in the water. We had to leave a set in the water for about 3 weeks, at several different locations spread throughout the basin.
It was always heartbreaking to arrive after 2 or 3 weeks to one of our tile locations to find this...
Beached tiles! We were trying to grow algae on the tiles. When they are no longer underwater, the algae does not grow. It very quickly gets desiccated in the hot African sun and dies. Usually when we would show up, half of our tiles would be destroyed by hippos or other large wildlife walking in or near the water. We were fortunate that the hippos spared this set. So, we moved them back into the water to try again...
3 comments:
Hi hope it's OK to ask I got your names from the Mara Triangle people on FB. My son is doing a topic on rivers at school and wants to do his assignment on the Mara River. He can get all the basic stuff about length, and animals etc but would really like to know more about how the Maasai use the river, how farms along the river might use it, what other tribes live along the river, and also are there any myths about the river? Any ideas of where to get this info? He's 9. Thanks Rhiannon
Sounds like a great project. Christina Hoffman did a Master's Thesis in 2007 that answered some of those questions. If you skim through her table of contents, you should be able to find most of that. You can find it on the "Reports and Data" page - Geospatial Mapping and Analysis of Water Availability-Demand-Use Within the Mara River Basin. I'll check with Amanda and see if we can dig up the other info you need.
Hi thanks for this...will show it to Ben when he gets in from school...am sure he will be happy to have more than wikipedia to answer his questions!!! Anything you may dig up about myths would be great as well!! And thanks so much for doing this...your project will probably interest him as well! :)
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