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Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries should take serious note of the regional weather outlook for the 2017-18 season released by the body’s Climate Services Centre (CSC) at a recent climate forum in Botswana.

The outlook does not look favourable for the region. It indicated there will be normal to below normal rains from October to November, and normal to above normal rains from January to March 2018.

The outlook says the first phase of below normal to normal rains could result in some countries suffering a devastating drought, while the second phase could see some countries battling a humanitarian disaster caused by floods due to the normal to above normal rains.

Although there will be localised forecasts for each country, the fact remains that the regional outlook will still have a bearing on each member of SADC. Even if it turns out that some countries will be spared from the prospective drought and floods, it will still be a regional humanitarian disaster if other countries are affected.

Countries in the SADC region depend on each other in various ways, that a mishap in one country can end up upsetting the whole region. Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department’s (MSD) National Climate Outlook Forum is expected to present the localised 2017/18 season rainfall forecast today.

Whatever the outlook for the country will be, we hope that the department would do its best to include the implications of the season on disaster management, agriculture and food security, water and energy.

What we already got from the regional weather outlook is a wake-up call for concerned Government departments to start serious preparations on how farmers can emerge winners out of this potentially disastrous situation.

Granted, the regional model cannot capture the local level outlook, it can be useful as it gives a global outlook for planning purposes. For the country and the region to avert a disaster during the 2017/18 rainfall season caused flooding or a drought, concerned Government departments should now start careful planning to ensure food security and disaster preparedness.

The MSD should readily and timely provide information to Government departments and farmers to allow for effective mitigation planning, in case the situation turns out worse.

The department of Agriculture should start preparing for information it should disburse to farmers in their various farming regions. Such advice should include the seed varieties to be planted in the various farming regions, when to plant, whether farmers should dry plant or wait for the first rains.

The types of suitable fertilisers to be applied at a particular point during the cropping season call for players in the fertiliser industry to also embark on serious preparations for the 2017/18 season.

As the risk of disaster is heightened by the expected flooding, regional civil protection units will soon be under the spotlight as they are expected to provide relief to distressed communities.

That means national governments and their partners should focus on adequately funding and capacitating such units. In fact, CPUs should start mapping areas of potential flooding, how they will disseminate information on what to do and not to do during flooding and how their teams would rescue those likely to be trapped by the floods.

It can never be too early to start preparations for averting a potential disaster. Both flooding and drought can be mitigated if there is enough information that is timeously released for stakeholders to act upon.

We commend Government for putting in place measures to consolidate the resurgent agricultural sector through supporting irrigation projects under the Command Agriculture programme and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme.

To ensure continued food sufficiency, we believe weather experts should compliment these programmes by issuing accurate forecasts for a particular season to enable better planning.