By: Muzhinga Kankinda
It is a combination of excruciating scenes; from extreme rain pours, flooded yards and farms, loss of human life and livestock to hunger, increased frequency and severity of seasonal droughts, occasional dry spells and changes in growing seasons. What challenge hasn’t Zambia faced since the emergence of Climate Change from as far as 2004?
Zambia is a landlocked country in the sub-Saharan region. She shares her boundaries with countries, Malawi, Botswana, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe with a total surface area of about 752, 614 km2 of land.
Belonging to the group of least developing countries in the World, Zambia faces challenges of poverty, food insecurity and lack of proper utilization of natural resources. These aforementioned challenges have thus, giving Climate Change a leeway to do more damage than good to Zambia even though the country recently climbed up the ladder to become a low-middle income country due to her booming mining industry. As such, Climate change poses a threat to Zambia’s efforts to combat poverty and food insecurity due to its ruthless negative impacts on the country.
With climate change projections of increase in temperature of 1.2 to 3.4 by 2060; intensified weather pattern with an increase in precipitation, floods and droughts, and a decrease in rainfall with varied rainfall patterns, Zambia has been bound to face critical problems in the agriculture sector, the health sector, the energy and infrastructure sector, the water supply sector as well as the Ecosystem.
Looking at the fact that Zambia’s rural population is dependent of subsistence farming of Maize and Cassava which are the Country’s staple foods for survival, food insecurity has been a major impact of climate Change in Zambia due to secondary challenges including waterlogging, increased crop loss to floods and droughts and intensified invasion of pests, locusts, weeds and pathogens. This was seen in the 2004-2005 droughts and recent 2020-2021 floods.
Meanwhile, the country has also been experiencing the challenge of reduced water supply following the reduced flow of water in rivers, Zambezi and Kafue as well as in the Kariba Dam. The Victoria Falls also experienced reduced levels of water in 2015. This issue brought about the challenge of shortage of water supply and lack of quality water supply. However, this is not the only challenge that emerged in that Zambia’s reliance on hydro-electricity was threatened by shortage of water supply which fueled shortage of power supply in the entire country, leading Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation, ZESCO to introduce a never ending load-shedding schedule to ensure that every household in the country has some power supply. However, this move has stunted productivity and economic growth in the country.
Additionally, while human health has been affected due to food insecurity and climate sensitive disease like Malaria and Cholera, Zambia’s ecosystem is threatened with deforestation, wildlife migration, forest fires, soil erosion, barren land and dried water sources.
However, Zambia just like any other country faced with challenges of Climate Change has not given up on the fight. The country is focused on developing sustainable programs and embarking on projects that work to protect human life, crops and livestock from Climate changes. So far, the country has taken measures to adapt to climate change and these include, advocating for use of the irrigation method for growth of crops. This has seen the country welcoming different kinds of irrigation technology to ensure that crops are grown throughout the year without waiting for the rain season or fear of the dry season.
Furthermore, irrigation has brought in ways through which water resources can be utilized efficiently for the benefit of human life, crops and livestock. Zambia has also engaged in programs that are aimed at strengthening climate warning and preparation systems as well as those that facilitate the use of Geographic Information systems, GIS and remote sensing and mapping devices to identify flood and drought prone areas. for instance, implemented between the years, 2016 and 2018, a Self Help Project helped communities from six districts of the Kafue sub-basin in Western Province of Zambia to adapt to escalating effects of global warming through methods of afforestation, installation of weather fore-warning and detection devices, cultivation of new weather resistant crops in variety, construction of flood resistant roads as well as secure infrastructure for domestic animal and poultry farming. This project was aimed at raising awareness and offering training that would provide members of the community with knowledge and skills to prevent and adapt to Climate Change. The project was fully supported by the government of Zambia and it was later named the winner in the ‘Climate Resilience’ for Water ChangeMakers at the Annual Climate Change Summit, CAS in January, 2021.
This is a sign that Zambians are working hard towards a Climate Change free world.
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