The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE is probably experiencing one of its best wet summer seasons for many years. Since December most areas across the country have been receiving rains almost daily nourishing the ground which was obviously very thirsty after the previous season’s dry spell which triggered massive crop failures and ultimately drought.
Because of the good rains, most farmers are this year anticipating good harvests. In fact in some areas, some farmers are now so confident that even if the rains are to stop today, the moisture that the ground has absorbed is enough to grow most of the crops to maturity.
This is good news for the country and the hope is that this will be a turning point for the country’s agricultural sector especially coming at a time when the Command Agriculture Programme is underway.
It is not a secret also that this country’s economy is agro driven. The country’s manufacturing sector has traditionally been getting the bulk of its raw materials from agricultural produce and the hope is that a successful season will help revive industry.
However, as most areas continue to receive the heavy rains, it is normal that we cannot use all the water at one go.
We have watched as some areas experience floods. Some rivers that were last seen flooded more than 10 years ago are suddenly roaring.
The truth though is that all this water we are marvelling at in the rivers, some which has even triggered floods, is just trying to find its way into the bigger rivers which deposit it in seas and oceans. It is inevitable that one day these rains will stop and the rivers will subside. They will not only subside but some will be dry again.
We have developed a culture of behaving and acting like there is no tomorrow. We behave in most cases as if some things will not come to an end and when they come to an end we start behaving as if we did not see that coming.
We are so short sighted and ignorant that surprisingly instead of coming up with measures on how we can harvest the water for future purposes, we are busy seeing only a bumper harvest in April and nothing beyond that. Some people are even coming up with jokes and circulating them on social media without taking a blink that soon the rains will be a thing of the past.
Over the past few years it has become so clear that Zimbabwe has experienced indifferent seasons. One year we experience a dry spell and another we experience a very wet season. Rainfall patterns in the country have because so unpredictable and we are not even sure whether next year we are going to experience another wet season.
Just a few months ago most cities had implemented water rationing as supply dams were running dry. Most irrigation schemes failed to produce anything because most of the supply dams had run dry. Because of the drought which was associated with the dry spell, the country today is using a lot of foreign currency to import maize and wheat to ensure people have enough food.
Non-Governmental Organisations are flourishing in Zimbabwe giving people food. Some of the food being distributed is not palatable to the people but they have no option except to take and consume. So the question which the people must seriously ask themselves, knowing all the problems that the indifferent seasons have brought, is why then do we still not have an effective and waterproof plan to ensure we harvest enough water in seasons like this one and ensure there will be enough even if the country receives below average rains in the coming season.
We marvel and make jokes at floods but we must also not forget that the same water we are watching and making jokes out of will soon be a thing of the past. Soon we will be thirsty again. Our rivers will be dry again and our livestock and wild animals will be roaming long kilometres looking for the precious liquid.
Soon after harvesting, we will prepare for the winter crop and we will need the same water to irrigate the crops. Unfortunately we will not be able to bring back the water from the seas and oceans. Right now it means that we must be bringing all our intellect together to ensure that we just do not marvel or complain over the heavy rains but take this as a blessing.
This blessing must not only be seen in the context of this summer season but many more months after. Are we going to have enough water for the winter crop? Are we going to have enough water even for the summer crop next year if we fail to receive enough rains? Will our cities and even rural areas have enough water way after these floods and rains are forgotten.
We have dams of course and the question which we must ask ourselves is why are these water bodies no longer able to hold enough water to cater for the country’s needs during the off rainy season.
Researchers must help the Government and come up with solutions to this. For example, if supply dams for cities are now incapable of feeding those cities and towns, what is the problem? Are their carrying capacity now so low to cater for the growing population? Is it that the dams are few or some of them are now silted that soon we will be told they are now 100 percent full when half of that is just sand?
What are the solutions then? Do we need to build new dams or just upgrade the existing ones? There is a lot to ponder on because of this situation. However, the bottom line is that in spite of the indifferent weather patterns Zimbabwe has been experiencing, the country is not a desert. It still receives fairly good rains once in a while and it is just a matter of ensuring that the water is harvested and used effectively during the dry times.
