"Blaming Climate Change Is Not A Strategy," - The Sunday Mail
Zimbabwe is in dire need of food aid and authorities are arguing that the famine was an effect of climate change. Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube is on record saying that the government’s plans were put off the rails by acts of God including Cyclone Idai and the El Nino-induced drought.
Ncube argues that if the rains had fallen, Dams which are used for irrigations and power generation would have been filled and contributed to the growth of the economy.
A comment in The Sunday Mail’s Opinion and Analysis section, however, notes that climate change was here to stay hence the need to establish a sustainable solution. Part of the comment reads:
Global warming is certainly here to stay, and blaming El Nina or La Nina or any other weather phenomenon is not going to water our fields. Only well-calculated moves will do that…
Instead, our strategy in the agricultural sector should revolve around the more than 10 000 dams in the country, including Lake Kariba, the world’s biggest dam based on water storage capacity, as well as the recently completed Tugwi-Mukosi Dam.
The comment is made when experts have projected prolonged hunger as they expect rains to be lower than the normal levels this year.
Others have urged the government to adopt smart agriculture and water-harvesting strategies to minimise the effects of climate change.
More: The Sunday Mail
