In the golden midday sun, Ozi village in Ozi location nestled within the tail end of Tana Delta in Tana River County looks nothing less of a lost paradise. It borders the Indian Ocean on one end and river Tana, the country’s longest river, on the other. During seasons of floods and high tides, Ozi becomes an island and when the water recedes, it joins the mainland in Kalota Brook where the salty seawater mixes with freshwater.
Ozi Village/ Tana River County: Photo by Lina Mwamachi
It is the ocean tides that make Ozi more magical, an occurrence that has made it an unrivaled coastal bread basket resulting from the ‘natural irrigation’ where tides push water into rice paddies.
“Unlike in other rice-growing regions where water sometimes is a challenge, In Ozi we bank on the tides that push water upstream into the canals and finally into farms. Already, we are waiting for the October tides to push water from river Tana into the farms,” said Saidi Nyara, a rice farmer.
In the village, the indigenous knowledge of predicting when tides are high is one of the interesting tales that has kept it active during all seasons and beyond the pandemic period. According to the farmers, the high tides start off pushing water up the river Tana from mid-October every year, and farmers dig canals to allow the river water to flow into the farms. It is also the season where most farmers harvest their produce to pave way for a new planting season.
Listen to the whole story below in Swahili.
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UMWAGILIAJI WA ASILI WAONGEZA ZAO LA MPUGA LICHA YA COVID-19 OZI TANA RIVER.
This story was done by Lina Mwamachi and Carolyne Chebet.
