As climate change accelerates, droughts are hitting the already arid areas of Kenya’s Turkana region harder and more regularly.

The border populations have to share already scarce resources with their neighbor across the border. This sharing is often done in a violent manner. Burned houses following bloody reprisal raids punctuate the road.

Kalashnikov on their shoulders, the herders escort the women who traditionally draw water. They are “better trained than us”, the local gendarmerie tells us. According to the herders, it is mandatory to arm themselves to defend access to water for the livestock and thus ensure the survival of the community.

At the bottom of wells up to 10 meters deep, the women form a chain to bring up barrels weighing several dozen kilos, using only their arms.