Climate change takes toll in Tanzania with snakebites

By Kizito Makoye

MKURANGA, Tanzania (AA) - Husna Sweya was idly walking on a lawn near her house one evening when she was bitten by a shiny black snake.

No sooner had Sweya moved to grab a stick than the snake slithered back into the grass.

“I felt like a bee sting on my left leg, and the pain was getting so severe,” she recalled.

When her leg started to swell, the 31-year-old mother of two in the village of Lukanga in the Mkuranga district in the East African nation of Tanzania realized she had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

Sweya’s husband, who was with her, adeptly squeezed the oozing blood from the snake’s fang marks and used a “black stone” -- a local tool made of surprisingly absorbent bone -- to suck the poison out.

“We rushed to the hospital and I got a shot to neutralize the poison,” she said.

“I got better after a few days.”

This is not the first time that snakes have invaded Sweya’s homestead. Last month her daughter Kidawa was nearly bitten by a huge snake when she was at the family’s clay soil pot used to store water.

“I don’t know how it got inside. When she saw it, she ran away crying. My husband killed it,” Sweya said.

- Loss of livelihood

In the nearby village of Mkamba, Daudi Mahawa had to have his right leg amputated a year ago after a cobra attack, an attack which crippled his livelihood.

Partially disabled, the 51-year-old fisherman still faces a daunting task to pacify the invaders and shield his family from future viper attacks.

To fend off the stray snakes, which keep invading homes in the impoverished village, he has to leave basins full of water outside the house before he goes to sleep.

According to Mahawa, the tactic is effective, as the snakes no longer invade his house when they find water outside.

“When I wake up in the morning, I often see the trails of snake who came to drink the water,” he said.

He added, however, as water is a scarce resource, leaving water outside for animals to drink is a sizeable sacrifice.

Local residents in Tanzania’s Coast Region are under growing risk of snake attacks as forests and other natural habitats grow hotter.

According to World Bank data, between 1991 and 2015 (the latest year records are available for), the average annual temperature in Tanzania has risen over half a degree.

- Bites on the rise

Snakebites, resulting in limb amputations and even death, have dramatically risen in the region bordering Tanzania’s largest city and former capital, Dar es Salaam.

According to data from the Coast Region’s natural resources office, based on snakebite incidents reported at the Tumbi Regional Referral Hospital, the number more than tripled from 151 in 2011 to over 458 cases last year.

“These numbers are shocking, and urgent policy action is needed,” said Mohamed Ali, an epidemiologist at the hospital.

Officials said this could be the tip of the iceberg, as in fact most snake bites go unreported.

As water supplies dwindle and rainforests burn, experts said rural residents are likely to encounter snakes more and more often.

A 2016 University of Kansas study of North and South America found that climate change could lead to expanding areas of snakebite risk.

“The increasing risk of snakebites would especially threaten remote, rural areas that are ill-equipped to handle poisonings,” the Inside Climate News website reported about the study.

"Despite the high frequency of snakebite-related problems worldwide in terms of morbidity and mortality, it has received little attention from national and international health agencies and foundations, research agendas and pharmaceutical companies, and is now categorized as a 'neglected tropical disease' by the World Health Organization," the website quoted the study as saying.

- Shrinking habitat

Snakebites poisoning is a serious public health problem in Tanzania, affecting farmers, pastoralists, hunters and children.

Flora Magige, head of the Zoology Department at the University of Dar es Salaam, said the surging number of snakebites may be caused by various environmental factors, including habitat loss.

“With less intact habitat, it is possible that snakes and people are going to encounter one another,” she said.

According to Magige, snakes rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature, which means their behavior might be influenced by the changing weather, among other factors.

“Snakes are very secretive creatures, which makes it hard to prove with certainty what really influences their behavior,” she said.

At the village of Vikindu, an elderly woman died six months ago after being bitten by a snake.

The woman, identified as Aziza Ali, 63, was tending crops in a field near her home when she was bitten by a rattlesnake and fell unconscious, overwhelmed by the poison.

“We tried to rescue her but she died when we reached the hospital,” said Ismail Mlengwa, her grandson.

A sad story for Aziza's loved ones, and one set to grow increasingly common as climate change pushes the wild and human worlds closer together every day.