Online Reporter
THE good rains last summer meant more than just decent crops and recovering pastures with a lot of grass also growing that now can be considered a serious fire risk unless land owners and users take swift action and the general public is very careful.
Since the end of July when the Environmental Management Agency went on full alert with the start of the most dangerous four months in the year, a total of 216 veld fires have been reported, an average of more than 11 a day, compared to just 47 by the same time last year, after that very severe drought.
While drought might leave very dry material, it will not leave much, but in a good season, the material bulks up and since there is little or no rain for more than three months a lot of this bulk, especially the grasses and the annuals, dry up and become, literally, tinder dry, just needing someone to make a mistake and cause a veld fire.
These first two-and-a-half weeks of the special watch have seen more than 70 000 hectares burned out, with the grass and other plants on that land no longer available for grazing, or being ploughed under for nutrients or just generally allowed to rot on the land to form mulches and composts and protect the land.
This is around 60 percent more land devastated than the 43 843ha hit by this time last year, and almost 30 percent more than the 54 971ha hit in 2023 by mid-August.
There are rules and regulations, as well as best practice. All farmers, regardless of the size of their land, are supposed to put in firebreaks along the boundaries, so that they are not hit so badly if a neighbouring farm has a fire, and for that matter can contain their own fires without damaging their neighbour’s land.
Firebreaks are often not that perfect, but properly made they do provide space where a farmer and helpful neighbours can establish a fighting line and bring the fire under control.
At one time farmers in a particular area had legal powers to compel a lax neighbour to obey the law, powers now held by EMA, but it still requires a report to be made by a community.
The only serious cropping at the moment is for irrigated wheat, and while wheat farmers tend to be very observant of fire regulations since they do not want to lose their crop, every year we see the odd field go up in smoke, although the fire guards and other measures usually limit the damage to small areas.
Livestock farmers, however, will want to preserve as much of the winter grazing as possible, and also generally want their grasses and undergrowth to mulch the land when the rains do start falling, to ensure that these rains irrigate the new pasture rather than wash away another layer of top soil.
Urban areas need to be on better alert, as we saw this week with a grass fire on the land of the National Railways of Zimbabwe. The protection given wetlands does mean that some open areas now have decent grass coverage; the city councils used to cut this back some years ago, but for the last couple of decades have let that responsibility lapse along with many others.
There is also a major building boom in many areas, and it is easy to find around Harare and bordering areas places where exceptionally long grass is growing by road sides and where well-grassed empty plots are next to building sites.
Small fires can grow to infernos in these conditions and it would seem sensible for groups of stand owners to club together to have the grass cut back if their developer or the local authority is reluctant to do so.
Land barons have also left some very dangerous areas and here the residents will have to take the action in the absence of effective local authorities.
With it now being obvious that we are facing one of the more dangerous years for veld fires, we all need to be involved to prevent severe damage and loss of life.
While land owners can take precautions and can apply pressure through community action on their more reluctant neighbours, even ordinary people can be far more careful. Very few fires start naturally, through lightning perhaps. Almost all start because someone was careless.
Smokers need to make sure their cigarettes are properly extinguished and not just tossed out of a car window or dropped on a verge.
Those wanting to light a fire to keep warm or cook something need to be very careful and make sure their little fire cannot spread to become a big fire.
This might well mean some sort of educational campaign in areas where people do sleep rough, in view of reports that this week’s central Harare fire was probably started by someone living near the Mukuvisi River.
The EMA, Forestry Commission and Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development normally launch awareness campaigns that help people know how to prevent and contain fires, but perhaps these campaigns now need to involve local authorities and the other agencies responsible for road verges and open unused land so that all angles are covered.
Eleven fires burning out 4 000ha a day, and that is just at the start of the fire season, seems to represent a severe danger unless all involved and all members of the public take appropriate action now.
