When Roberto Macri built his luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal village of Kipini, it was located about 100 meters (330 feet) from the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean.
For nearly two decades, his business flourished as tourists flocked to the island to enjoy the pristine beaches and sunny weather.
Built on top of sand dunes, the Tana Lodge Hotel offered spectacular views over the ocean.
But in 2014, people began to notice a change. Sea levels began to rise, and within five years, the hotel’s nine guest cottages had been swallowed up by the sea—one after the other.
“The ocean gradually changed and began to encroach on the hotel. The last remaining cottage was swallowed by the sea in 2019, marking the end of my glorious hotel,” Italian businessman Macri told the BBC.
Now other residents of Kipini village, whose houses are further away from the hotel, are also facing the same problem.
Built at the mouth of Kenya’s longest waterway, the Tana River, which flows into the Indian Ocean, Kipini is one of many coastal villages slowly disappearing.
“The ocean is getting closer every day and our homes are getting weaker. We are scared and in need, but there is not much we can do,” Saida Idris, a community leader, told the BBC.
She said several people had died and an unknown number were missing, with victims swept away by rising sea levels, strong winds and heavy tides, especially at night.
The cause is the disappearance of the mangrove forests along the coastline, the coast’s main line of defense against erosion.
Mangrove forests are full of salt-tolerant trees and shrubs. They prevent seawater from penetrating into agricultural land. They stabilize the soil and prevent it from being washed away.
The cause of their disappearance appears to be a combination of deforestation by local people in search of desirable hardwoods and rising sea levels due to climate change, which scientists believe is the main cause.
“The coastline in Kipini is very exposed to the effects of strong winds that amplify the ocean waves,” explains George Odera, a scientist with Fauna and Flora, a conservation group.
Kipini, with its inviting palm trees and the smell of spices and grilled seafood, conjures up images of laid-back coastal life in every Kenyan’s mind.
But this idyll is threatened by rising sea levels.
According to Omar Halki, a local administrator, nearly 10 kilometers of what was once dry land has been swallowed by the sea over the past decade.
“It’s only a matter of time before the whole region is flooded,” he told the BBC.
Kipini has a population of about 4,000 and residents told the BBC that rising sea levels have left them unable to dig or build solid foundations for their homes.
Some in Kipini estimate that more than 1,000 people have moved to other villages in the past decade.
Most of the wells and boreholes that used to provide them with fresh water have now become saline, forcing them to look for alternative sources of drinking water.
Increasing salinity levels in groundwater also have serious consequences for agriculture.
Crabs and shrimps, which once also served as a source of income for the local population, are now scarcer because their spawning grounds are located in the mangrove forests.
Rising waters are affecting almost every aspect of life, including the way people are buried.
“Graves are shallow because if we dig the recommended two metres, the dead are buried in the water,” one resident told the BBC.
Kipini is located in the Tana River County region, which is experiencing multiple climate emergencies, ranging from severe drought and water scarcity in some places to flooding in others.
It is the first time in the region that a village has been flooded by rising sea levels.
However, some locals say the geography of the coast has always changed, pointing out that the small fishing community of nearby Ungwana Bay was wiped out years ago.
Others claim that the course of the Tana River is changing.
“Our ancestors showed us where the original waterway ran,” resident Rishadi Badi told the BBC, explaining that he had been told the river flowed through Kipini generations ago.
But Mr Odera, who is studying the disaster Kipini is facing, blames climate change.
“What is happening in Kipini is not history. It is something of recent times and the bitter truth is that it is not getting better,” he said.
Local authorities want to build a sea wall along the 72-kilometre coastline to protect the village from further encroachment by the ocean.
While authorities acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, the wall project has not yet started due to a lack of funding, said Mwanajuma Hiribae, a senior land affairs official in the region.
“The seawater infiltration is a bigger problem than about 15 other villages and the provincial government cannot solve this alone,” she told the BBC.
Although she said the UN Environment Programme and UN Habitat had expressed their support for the wall project.
Similar walls have been built at historic sites such as Fort Jesus in Mombasa and the Vasco Da Gama Pillar in Malindi, after rising sea levels threatened these tourist attractions.
However, climate experts say building a wall in Kipini is a “mechanical solution” and that conservation initiatives such as mangrove restoration are needed.
“The ocean is not something that the government just wakes up to and stops. We need to help our communities adapt and become more resilient to these climate changes,” Mr Odera said.
According to the locals, it feels like they are temporary guests in their own home. They walk to the coast every day to see how far the ocean has flowed.
“If no aid comes within three years, the entire Kipini region will be swallowed by the ocean,” Mr Halki said.
For Mr Macri, the situation is dire and he has now moved to the coastal town of Malindi, 170km (100 miles) from Kipini.
“The area was like gold – a quiet village with beautiful sand dunes surrounded by coconut palms and historical buildings right on the beach,” he said.
Of his $460,000 investment, only the former manager’s house remains, less than 50 meters from the sea, awaiting its fate.
Of the 10 acres (four hectares) on which the hotel stands, four are completely underwater.
Mr. Macri is holding on to the remaining six hectares in the hope that he can return and reinvest once the ocean can no longer invade the land.
His former director, Joseph Gachango, is also devastated.
“It broke my heart to see the hotel, which used to attract guests from all over Italy, being swept away and about 50 employees losing their jobs,” he said.
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