adminJeffrey Gogo Climate Story
TARINGA Vhareta (42) of Dambakurima Village in Muzarabani was on January 28 attacked and killed by a stray hippo along Mataure River while he was working in his field.
The hippo ploughed its 30cm incisors into Vhareta’s face, tossed him into the air before dumping the lifeless body of the farmer into the mud. Vhareta was pronounced dead on admission at St Albert’s Hospital.
As the effects of climate change-linked events such as floods and droughts intensify, human casualties are increasing and crop damage multiplying.
People are desperate to move to new areas of safety and so are animals.
The large mammal that killed Vhareta was moving upstream from the Zambezi River into Musengezi River where the waters were raging following more than 300mm of rainfall in the area in just two weeks. Mataure River is a tributary of Musengezi River.
Elsewhere in Muzarabani, Mbarika Petros Kureya of Kabaira Village was fatally attacked by a crocodile which had been wandering close to his homestead under cover of flooded flat terrains of the semi-arid rural district.
On February 3, Stephen Kwatukani survived a crocodile attack along Musengezi River close to the Muzarabani Growth Point although he sustained serious injuries.
But there are others unlike Kwatukani whose weak physical strength and innocent lack of urgency or both increases their vulnerability and decreases their coping capacity.
Elvis Mujuru (11) of Chirimbwa Village, Muzarabani was swept away while trying to cross the flooded Pake River, highlighting the risks that children face from the impacts of climate change.
Moses Pfebve (5) and, siblings Matthew Matanhura (3) and Priscilla Matanhura (4), all of Muzarabani, drowned in sorrowful circumstances during the floods.
Disability and climate change
There are those people living with disabilities (PWDs) whose vulnerability is heightened and obvious, and have certainly been affected by the recent flooding occurrences across Zimbabwe.
However, despite their special needs, there are no specific Government response strategies to meet those needs.
At the time of writing, the number of people living with disabilities affected by the flooding at Tokwe-Mukosi, Muzarabani or Tsholotsho, where the worst humanitarian situations were reported, was still unknown.
Yet, 1,3 million people or 10 percent of Zimbabwe’s total population are estimated to suffer from one kind of disability or another. Half of the PWDs are children.
National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH) executive director Mr Farai Mukuta said that PWDs tended to become invisible in emergency situations, largely due to lack of disaster preparedness.
He said even the Civil Protection Unit may not have a PWD to advise from issues such as needs assessment, primary rehabilitation therapy, accessible housing and accessible water and sanitation.
“The reality is that the people living with disabilities in and around Tokwe-Mukosi basin just as the whole country have not been enumerated,” said Mr Mukuta in written responses to this writer.
“The journalists and relief workers have not helped either because they have concentrated on the global number of the affected which is difficult to disaggregate.
“During disasters everything becomes urgent, so the success in any rescue operation will be in the preparation which obviously was not fully consultative.
“This is the right time for communities to understand and deal with disabilities, they discover how to think about and understand the special needs of PWDs during disaster management.”
Despite representing the interests of people with disabilities, NASCOH failed to extend aid to those affected by the floods because it “depends on benevolence and at present had no funding towards rescue operation.”
PWDs are often excluded from disaster response efforts and particularly affected by changes in terrain resulting in disaster.
Due to inadequate physical accessibility or loss or lack of mobility aids or appropriate assistance, the disabled are often deprived from rescue and evacuation services, relief access, safe location/adequate shelter and other services.
Emotional distress and trauma caused by a crisis situation often has long term consequences on people with disabilities.
God is faithful.
Online Reporter