The biggest permanent desert lake threatens with rising waters and hungry crocs

School children walk through the shallows past submerged and abandoned school buildings at the El Molo Bay primary school in Komote, Kenya. Teachers at the school say the buildings have become a breeding ground for crocodiles. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption

As a scorching wind tears across the barren, rocky slopes of Komote Island off the shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Alfred Lenkutuk sits in the meager shelter of his hut, gazing out over the village where he was born and remembering better times.

As little as 10 years ago, the village wasn't on an island at all. But the lake has steadily expanded, swallowing homes, grazing lands, schools, roads and the burial grounds where Lenkutuk's ancestors were laid to rest. Today, the village is separated from the mainland by about 660 yards of shimmering turquoise water where fishermen paddle on homemade rafts.

Growing up, the 71-year-old remembers going on regular communal hippo hunts around the lakeshore, and fishermen coming home with catches of more than 250 pounds. Now the hippos are virtually wiped out and fishermen are lucky if they come home with even 10 pounds of fish. Families have been divided by the rising waters. Children must take a boat to get to school every morning. Anyone with livestock has been forced to leave.

"Now we depend on the government," says Lenkutuk, a member of the El Molo people, one of Africa's smallest and most marginalized indigenous groups, whose lives have revolved around the lake for centuries. "We're not able to support ourselves."

The government sends supplies of rice and beans every few months, and recently provided the island with a reverse osmosis plant to give them access to fresh water. Lenkutuk says it's not nearly enough.

Lake Turkana is the world's largest permanent desert lake, and its waters have long sustained hundreds of thousands of people in one of the most isolated and neglected parts of Kenya. But now the lake is facing multiple, concurrent threats. Rising water levels -- attributed to a combination of climatic and tectonic factors -- have displaced thousands, damaged infrastructure and services, and disrupted fishing. At the same time, persistent drought across northern Kenya has forced thousands of herders to take up fishing, putting even greater pressure on an already delicate ecosystem and fueling intense competition.

A boy washes his face in the early morning amid submerged palm trees near the village of Eliye Springs on the shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Over the last few years, water levels have risen dramatically, adding extra strain to lakeside communities already struggling to make ends meet. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption