For the past few years, our local director, Mbarouk, has been telling me about a small island off of Pemba called Kokota. Kokota is one of those places where you have to ask – how did people ever come to settle here in the first place. Although the land is fertile and the fishing is good, Kokota faces one major problem. They have no fresh water.
Over the next few years we plan to expand our programming to develop new and innovative climate-change proof technologies. We’re planning on rolling out a whole host of new initiatives such as beekeeping, alternative energy, earth block building and fuel-efficient cook stove production. In light of our new initiatives, I thought I’d head over to Kokota and see things for myself.
When we first arrived we were greeted by a gang of kids. Not in school I asked? No school here, came the reply. No water, no school and no medical dispensary. This island population of 500 was truly the forgotten. Government, development groups and NGOs had completely missed this isolated islet. As we walked up from the shore I quickly noticed the desperation. A pot was placed on a thatch roof to collect water. A single gutter stood alone outside a hut. All the wells that Kokota Islander have dug to date have turned up brackish seawater, unfit for drinking. I was told that people would make daily trips to Wete, Pemba, almost 4 hours away by wooden boat in order to collect water.
I was told that the one person in town that could read and write would hold classroom sessions under a baobab tree. An effort was made to construct a school and the community had purchased bricks and assembled walls, but ran out of cash before they could put a roof on the structure. We talked to a group of women and quickly realized that trees, agroforestry and charcoal substitutes were far from people’s mind.
As we left the island, I knew we’d found a new community to partner with. Trees and agroforestry will come in time but before that, we’ll put a metal roof on the school, collect rainwater and build storage tanks in order to store the thousands of liters of fresh water that fall from the sky during the rainy season. If people are going to plant trees and care for their environment, they’re going to need some drinking water first. Kokota, Community Forests International will be back.
-Jeff Schnurr
























