Chronicle Editor
Patrick Chitumba, [email protected]
CLIMATE change has severely impacted Zimbabwe, with rising temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns affecting the country’s agriculture, water resources, and energy production.
According to Coping with Drought and Climate Change (CwDCC) in Zimbabwe, the country has experienced its six warmest years on record since 1987, with daily minimum and maximum temperatures rising by approximately two degrees Celsius over the past century.
The country has faced 10 droughts, decreased freshwater availability, and destroyed biodiversity. Lake Kariba’s water levels have dropped to below 30 percent, affecting power generation.
The changing rainfall patterns and droughts have led to a predicted 30 percent decrease in agricultural production, exacerbating hunger and poverty.
Millions of Zimbabweans, particularly in rural areas, face significant risks due to climate change. The elderly, children and those with limited economic resources are disproportionately affected.
Zimbabwe has shown commitment to addressing climate change by ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, more needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions and promote cleaner energy sources.
Elsewhere and recently, for the first time in over 50 years, the Sahara Desert — a place synonymous with arid landscapes and endless sand — has been struck by catastrophic floods.
In a dramatic twist, two days of relentless rainfall in south-eastern Morocco unleashed torrents that transformed the parched desert into a flooded expanse, a sight unseen for decades.
Tagounite, a remote village 450 kilometres south of Rabat, was at the centre of this extraordinary event, recording more than 100mm of rainfall in just 24 hours, far exceeding the region’s yearly average.
Morocco’s meteorology officials called it an unparalleled event, with meteorologist Mr Houssine Youabeb noting that it had been decades since such intense rainfall hit the region in such a short time.
The Sahara Desert, a vast stretch covering over nine million square kilometres, faces growing threats from extreme weather, driven by global warming. With dammed reservoirs refilling at unprecedented rates, scientists now warn that such dramatic weather events may no longer be rare.
Ms Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, stressed that rising global temperatures are disrupting the planet’s water cycles, leading to both more severe floods and worsening droughts.
“A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which is conducive to heavy rainfall. More rapid evaporation worsens drought conditions,” she said.
According to Mr Peter Makwanya, a Climate Change Researcher and lecturer at Zimbabwe Open University, the climate is defined as the average weather conditions (temperature, rainfall, wind direction and speed, sunshine, humidity, atmospheric particles) mostly calculated over a long period, usually 30 years.
He said climate change results from the build-up in the atmosphere of human-induced gases that trap the sun’s heat causing global changes in weather patterns, including altering rainfall, an increase in atmospheric and ocean temperatures leading to sea levels rising together with related stresses that impact on life.
“How is climate change contributing to flooding and droughts? The well-publicised destruction of forests or rainforests across the tropics should not be viewed as the main cause of global warming but it certainly plays a role.
“The broad leaves of a rainforest canopy help trap moisture and allow it to slowly evaporate, providing a natural air-conditioning effect in the process. When the rain forest has been slashed and burnt over large areas, hotter and drier conditions often set in, sometimes culminating into a drought,” explained Mr Makwanya.
Tropical forests, he noted, hold nearly half of the carbon dioxide present in vegetation around the world adding that when the forests and their undergrowth are burned, they release huge amounts of carbon dioxide, adding to the already overburdened atmosphere.
He said the same thing happens when fossil fuels are burned as they release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing it to warm.
“As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases accumulate, they block each other’s ability to radiate to space causing the atmosphere to heat up further resulting in violent rains causing flooding in the process,” said Mr Makwanya.
He said floods and droughts experienced in Zimbabwe as well as other areas across the world are described as two sides of the catastrophic coin.
Both droughts and floods, Mr Makwanya said, can become more common if the timing of rainfall shifts from its normal timing.
“Flooding may also not always be related to changes in weather patterns, as soils, high rivers and reservoirs. Land use changes also play a huge role in flooding potential where deforestation appears to exacerbate the risk of flooding and landslides.
Online Reporter