By Issa Hussein - Reporter
May 20, 2026 - For Hassan Mohamud, farming along the banks of River Tana has turned into a painful cycle of hope and heartbreak.
Every planting season, the Howlwathaq farm Garissa farmer tills his land with optimism, investing in seeds, labour and irrigation along with other group farm members . But just as the crops begin to flourish, raging floods sweep through the farm, destroying everything in their path.
Now economically strained and exhausted by years of repeated losses, Mr Mohamud says he no longer knows how to rebuild his life.
“Every season we plant expecting a harvest, but the floods come and destroy everything,” he said during a meeting of farmers in Garissa town. “We have lost millions of shillings over the years and many families have been pushed into poverty.”
Mr Mohamud is among hundreds of farmers farming along River Tana who are demanding compensation from the government over what they describe as perennial flood devastation blamed on the release of water from upstream dams.
The farmers, under the Garissa Farmers Network, say floods have become an annual disaster affecting communities stretching from Balambala to Ijara, a distance of about 400 kilometres.
“Our farms are dotted along the Tana River from Balambala to Ijara. We have been facing floods since 2004,” said Mohamed Sheikh Hassan, one of the leaders of the network.
“Every season, either short or long rains, we have been facing floods which are disastrous to our farms,” he added.
The farmers say years of destruction have left many of them trapped in debt after repeatedly borrowing money to restart farming activities, only for floods to wipe out their investments again.
Besides crops, irrigation pipes, water pumps and other farm infrastructure have also been destroyed.
The only intervention they receive, the farmers claim, are warnings to vacate their farms whenever water levels rise upstream.
“The only assistance we are getting is alerts a few days before the upstream dams are released,” Mr Hassan said. “We cannot continue this way. The people releasing the dams have to be responsible for the flooding of our farms.”
In Sankuri area, farmer Somane Arale is also counting losses after floodwaters uprooted and destroyed his fruit trees.
Mr Arale said he had spent years nurturing the trees, hoping they would provide a stable source of income for his family, only for the floods to erase the investment within days.
“The floods destroyed my fruit trees completely. This was my livelihood and now I have to start again from zero,” he lamented.
The farmers are now calling for long-term infrastructural solutions to end the recurring destruction.
Among their proposals are the construction of mega dams to harvest and regulate excess water, diversion canals along River Tana, and the sealing of river breaking points blamed for overflowing waters into farms and villages.
They argue that unless permanent measures are put in place, thousands of farming families in Garissa will continue sliding deeper into economic hardship despite the region’s vast agricultural potential.
The River Tana basin has experienced repeated flooding over the years, particularly during heavy rains and periods of water discharge from the Seven Forks dams, often leaving widespread destruction in parts of Garissa and Tana River counties.
The flash floods affected hundreds of farmers , worst affected including Howlwathag , Qabobey , Lagdera ,Bara farm among many others along the river.
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