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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor

 

Recently, Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world to mark the Desertification and Drought Day (June 17) at a time when the country and most other African countries are now bearing the brunt of the frequency, severity and duration of droughts and its impacts on vegetation, agricultural production and many other economic sectors.

 

Drought is now the highest – impacting natural hazards affecting Zimbabwe and the region largely due to a warming climate.

 

There is respite and the country is projected to experience back-to-back droughts alternating with severe flooding as global warming continues to ravage poor communities in most developing countries.

 

As we marked, Desertification and Drought Day, previously known as the World Desertification Day, it is important for Zimbabwe to continuously promote public awareness on international and local efforts to combat desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) in line with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to which Zimbabwe is a party.

 

Commemorations for this year were held under the theme: “Rising Up from Drought Together.”

 

The Environmental Management Agency says the theme is a clarion call for all of us to play a part in the fight against drought.

 

“Drought is one of the most destructive natural disasters in terms of loss of life arising from impacts, such as wide scale crop failure, veld fires, loss of livestock due to poverty death and water stress and shocks,” the agency said.

 

“This is exacerbated by land degradation and climate change. Droughts have been part of human and natural systems, but what we are experiencing now is much worse, largely due to human activity.”

 

Zimbabwe is implementing various programmes that aim to promote climate proof agriculture, irrigation rehabilitation, urban water supply initiatives and others covering energy, water, and crop diversification.

 

All these programmes need public awareness and strengthening of capacity building.

 

Land restoration initiatives remain critical in promoting sustainable land management in line with the decade of ecosystem restoration 2020 – 2030 as well as the NDS1 goals.

 

Zimbabwe now needs to scale-up and share best practices on innovative drought and water security projects that have been implemented successfully in both rural and urban areas.

 

There are several case studies of interventions in drought and water security that the country must consolidate, share lessons and replicate the good practices in areas that still lack the requisite programmes.

 

The urban and rural poor still face the daily challenge of food, energy and water insecurity.

 

Government rolled out the Presidential Borehole Scheme to provide clean water to urban people as part of wider efforts to ease water challenges in urban centres. Most towns, cities and growth points still have inadequate equipment, infrastructure and resources to enhance water supply.

 

To address the gap, the installation of solar-powered community boreholes has proven to be an effective stop gap measure, as councils and local authorities struggle to complete high cost water projects.

 

Even if the Kunzvi Dam that aims to help end water challenges in greater Harare was to be completed, drought can still affect the provision of water.

 

It remains critical for the Government and various development partners to roll out programmes that aim to harness underground water resources sustainably.

 

In rural areas too, solar powered boreholes are improving livelihoods and enhancing the quality of life of the rural poor. These programmes need to be scaled up to expand access to water for the majority of the poor.

 

Deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity are increasing at an alarming pace in Zimbabwe and there is need for support of donors and public–private partnerships to communities to adopt integrated and participatory watershed management initiatives.

 

Various tools can be used to restore degraded land. These may include effective implementation of natural resource management by-laws, controlling soil erosion and adopting water harvesting and drip irrigation.

 

In addition to improving water security, these interventions have the potential to increase food production and regenerate the biodiversity of the areas.

 

Through the use of simple water harvesting technologies local communities can also improve their food security, livelihoods and social structure, while preventing further environmental degradation.

 

In drought prone parts of the country, the construction of sand dams can help to improve water security for agriculture and improve livelihoods.

 

Community participation and effective partnerships among communities and governments (local and national) combined with financial and technical support can lead to successful project outcomes that improve food and water security.

 

Years of over-farming, overgrazing, coupled with climate change are increasing the threat of desertification in Zimbabwe, something that could also threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people and the survival of wildlife.

 

It is important for Zimbabwe and other regional countries to take initiatives such as the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), which was endorsed in 2007 by the African Union as the Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahara and Sahel.

 

The initiative, supported by BirdLife International and other partners, spanning from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, aims at halting desertification by restoring degraded soil through a mosaic of different land uses, including sustainable farming and restored patches of natural habitat, with the ambitious target of creating 10 million green jobs and providing food security to more than 20 million people by 2030.

 

A UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) report released in 2020 shows that about 20 million hectares of land have been restored so far.

 

In Senegal, 11 million trees have been planted, while across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia, more than 540,000 hectares of land had been reforested, creating over 280,000 jobs.

 

The statistics are grim for Africa.

 

The continent has one billion hectares of drylands, 393 million hectares of which need restoration in Africa’s Great Green Wall areas, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

 

AFR100 has committed 31 African Governments to restoring 100 million hectares by 2030 – a mammoth task.

 

Africa has an estimated additional 132 million hectares of degraded cropland, which combined with climate change, makes millions more vulnerable.

 

Around 45 percent of Africa’s land is impacted by desertification, 55 per cent of which is at very high risk of further desertification.

 

Step by step, Zimbabwe also needs to scale up its own initiatives for land restoration.

 

Building water harvesting structures and strengthening support for local communities, constructing infrastructure to augment water supply for domestic use and livestock production as well as initiating village savings and loan schemes for immediate income can help the country to better respond to climate change related disasters.

 

Up-scaling climate-smart agriculture to improve soil water retention, promoting solar energy and providing knowledge and skills for drought-coping mechanisms through simple and locally available resources can also help increase resilience to drought.

 

Collaboration with international development partners and other countries remains important in building Zimbabwe’s disaster and mitigation response.

 

The tools are there and what remains is scaling them up and opening doors to climate disaster risk finance and insurance solutions to help avert, minimize and address climate disaster risks by strengthening local adaptive capacity and resilience.

 

Action is what remains.

 

And, there is no doubt that stepping up national and local community efforts to combat land degradation is the only way to safeguard food and water security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ward against future threats to health and the environment as well as livelihoods.