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Jeffrey Gogo Climate Story
The heavy rains sweeping across Zimbabwe have created and, in some cases expanded opportunities for rainwater harvesting. This is a concept still in its infancy here although critical in view of the growing water shortages across the globe. For Mrs Fatima Tamai (56), a communal farmer from Gwapedza Village, Chivi in Masvingo, a notoriously dry district receiving less than 450mm of rainfall annually, rainwater harvesting has always managed to keep hunger out of her home, even in drought periods.

The grandmother of four started collecting rainwater in 1993 after receiving training from the Intermediate Technology Development Group, now known as Practical Action, a global non-governmental organisation bent on improving urban and rural livelihoods.

The water is collected in a storm drain dug at the bottom of a hill close to Mrs Tamai’s fields, the slope allows for collection of water in vast amounts, easily and efficiently.

The drain is about three metres in width, over a metre deep and its length is equivalent to that of 10 buses, or a full-length contour.
A narrow waterway was built to protect the banks of the storm drain from bursting if the rains become excessive.

“One of the most important aspects of rainwater harvesting is that, as a farmer, you direct the water in the way you want it to flow.
“It just does not go to waste, where it wants, but the water works for you what you want it to,” Mrs Tamai said.

“By utilising the water collected, we have managed to start market gardening projects such as the planting of tomatoes and other vegetables (during the dry season), which we sell to other people in the community, particularly teachers.

“At any time of the month, I am not without money. I earn more than US$20 each month from the tomatoes’ projects. Some people earn nothing.”

Rainwater harvesting is an age old technology that involves the collection and storage of rain water for future agricultural or domestic use.

That water can be stored in underground or aboveground tanks or reservoirs. Underground storage helps minimise evaporation, which is seen rising between 5 and 15 percent over the next 40 years due warming global average temperatures.

Water obeys the human voice
Mrs Tamai said the heavy rains currently pounding most areas in Zimbabwe were a blessing, even when they have caused damage in some areas.

She said rainwater harvesting was very helpful in improving agriculture production and averting food shortages at household level, particularly for those people in drought-prone areas such as Chivi.

“I have absolute faith that after receiving the first and second rains and the filling up our storm drain we are certain to have a good harvest. I encourage other farmers that water must not be wasted.

“The water should obey your voice. Stop here, go that way. It is the farmer’s responsibility to direct water in the course you want it to run. That will stop hunger in the home,” said Mrs Tamai emphatically.

The draft National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) identifies rainwater harvesting as one of the key aspects to improving water availability at a time of changing climates, which have elevated the risk of extreme floods and droughts.

Investments still need to be multiplied across the water sector in general, but the NCCRS also suggests to “increase capture and retention of rainwater through the construction of waterways and other water harvesting structures to ensure availability of water during dry seasons.”

Rainwater Harvesters Association of Zimbabwe (RHAZ) chairperson Mr Elijah Rusike said the recent rains had created possible devastation for now but for rainwater harvesters it had opened new possibilities.

This is because the rainwater harvesting structures established in the farmers’ fields were helping to recharge the water table and also creating farming opportunities in the areas of horticulture and for other water loving crops such as winter rice, in cases where the ground became water logged.

In urban areas, water collected from rain was safe for drinking, if proper precautions were taken, despite widespread assertions to the contrary.

Harvested water reduces demand on the use of pure treated water as it can be used for cleaning cars, watering lawns and gardens, said Mr Rusike.

Its major challenge, however, was the high cost of setting up the necessary infrastructure.
For those yet to take up rainwater harvesting technologies, as is widely the case in Zimbabwe currently, it was a story of missed opportunities.

“The sad thing with the rains is that we see it falling on our roofs and land on the ground and we watch it collect and flow away from our doorstep,” said Mr Rusike.

“Yet just a few weeks down the line we have to follow it to the river or have to dig up to 40 metres for boreholes to get the water back! We also watch our crops wilt because there is no more rains or there was a mid season drought. If we had captured it and stored it either in the soil or in the tank we could not have had to follow it and waste money or lose a crop in the process.”

Water scarcity
According to a 2012 report, the World Bank estimates that annual rainfall in southern Africa will decline by up to 30 percent by 2080 if global temperature rise reaches 4 degrees Celsius, which is the most likely scenario with current inadequate climate action.

Water in streams, dams, and rivers will fall 50 percent due to increased evaporation resulting in widespread water shortages, troubled irrigation systems, reduced agriculture output and food scarcity. Africa’s agriculture is 97 percent rain fed.

The envisaged challenges create opportunities for small-scale farmers and people in urban areas to adopt rainwater harvesting techniques and minimise risk.

Water captured from rain can be used successfully for drinking, livestock and other farming practices, such as market gardening.
In the drier regions of Zimbabwe such as Masvingo and Matebeleland, annual precipitation has, on the average, declined by between 5 percent and 15 percent since 1960, according to the Meteorological Services Department, and droughts have increased in frequency.
In the current rainy season, these areas have received up to 800mm of rain, double the average received in any regular season.

While the rains have caused considerable damage in some regions, in others, most of the rainwater has gone to waste when it could have been harvested for future use, due to an absence of rainwater harvesting infrastructure or lack of knowledge.

Indeed, some may have collected in dams or rivers making it useful for irrigation. But the bulk of irrigation infrastructure in the drier regions, and indeed across Zimbabwe, is in bad shape, inefficient, non-functional or does not exist at all.

Between now and 2015, Government is targeting to rehabilitate or expand 15 irrigation schemes in the provinces of Masvingo, the Midlands and Matebeleleland measuring 53 600 hectares for US$135 million.

Countrywide irrigation development programmes in the same period will chew a total US$580 million, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in the 2014 Budget, hoping these changes will result in improved agriculture production, particularly for food crops.

However, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset), the country’s bedrock for economic rejuvenation until 2018, is silent on rainwater harvesting, even when the strategy anchors on growing agriculture productivity to boost food security.

This fundamental pillar of Zim-Asset faces increasing risks from climate change impacts, one of them water stress.

God is faithful

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