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Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Large tracts of land have already gone up in smoke in the Midlands with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) battling to contain fire outbreaks in the province. According to EMA, the fire season in Zimbabwe used to start on July 31 and end in October every year but due to changing climatic conditions, the fire season now begins as early as June.

In an interview, EMA provincial information officer, Mr Simon Musasiwa said there were several veld fire outbreaks that have been recorded in the Midlands so far, destroying both flora and fauna.

He said Gweru District has recorded the most outbreaks, as the agency continues to battle the fire menace.
He said no human lives have been lost so far although some property has been destroyed.

“We are already in the fire season and we have recorded many veld fire outbreaks. There has been fire reports across the province but Gweru District has been the most affected so far. We have recorded more fire outbreak incidents in Gweru District than any other district and we are still investigating the causes,” he said.

Mr Musasiwa said the fire outbreaks were despite the fact EMA held several fire awareness campaigns throughout the province.

He said the agency has tried to rope in all stakeholders including traditional leaders in fighting fire outbreaks.
“In fact in all districts there are fire-fighting teams we have trained and equipped so that they can be in a position to put out fire in case there is an outbreak. These are some of the efforts we have made in trying to conserve our pastures but we still record fire incidences,” he said.

Meanwhile, farmers in Somabula area on the outskirts of Gweru have said their cattle were now in danger of starvation after a veld fire razed the area, leaving no pastures.
They said they were not in a position to buy enough feed for their herds.

“Our livestock is in dire situation. There are no grazing pastures that were left. We have to buy stock feed but it’s very difficult to feed all our livestock. The other challenge is that there is foot and mouth outbreak and we can’t go to the market to dispose some of our beats,” said Mr Jabulani Mangena.