Online Reporter
THE onset of the rains each year is justly welcomed by all Zimbabweans, who look forward to the annual miracle of the brown and dusty earth suddenly, almost overnight, turning green once more and then the farmers planting their crops that bring us our food and a good slice of our national wealth.
But there are dangers that come with the rains and which must be guarded against so that the rains are purely positive.
Every year we have people killed by lightning, because they or their parents do not take precautions, or people who take totally unnecessary risks, usually to save a bit of time, and drown.
Already the first person of the present season, and it is only a few days since rains started falling, has been killed by lightning, an 11-year-old child playing in the rain at the Grantley mine compound in Chakari in Mashonaland West.
The child and a nine-year-old sibling were enjoying the first of the summer rains when both were struck, the younger child eventually recovering consciousness but the elder dying.
Zimbabwe has a high rate of lightning thanks to the patterns of its rainfall, with most of the thunder storms in the early part of the season each year and the rocky and dry ground that these first rains hit allowing the creation of the charges that kill most people and livestock. Few are actually struck by lightning, most people and animals dying from straddling a sharp voltage gradient created when lightning strikes close by.
These days we see very few killed in their homes. Census and other surveys have shown the continual improvement in Zimbabwean housing and the fact that a substantial majority of homes are now masonry, or at least have masonry rooms, means that almost all families do have a safe shelter. Masonry buildings can be struck without harming those using them for shelter.
But that still leaves the dangers outside and we need to continually educate our people, including children, of the dangers of running around in a thunderstorm or taking inappropriate shelter. Experts have determined that if you are caught in the open, the risk is minimised if you squat, so that you neither present a higher point nor spread yourself over what could be a serious voltage gradient from a near miss. Standing under trees is simply asking for trouble.
Schools need to take the lead with children, and our near universal education means that a quick lesson in October in every school might well pay dividends.
At the same time schools and families and businesses can usefully check their roofs and other construction before the rains, making sure roof sheets are properly secured and that other potentially dangerous projections are rendered safe. Every season we hear of some home or school losing its roof, while very similar structures better maintained nearby just get wet.
We also need to guard against drownings, now probably as homes become more secure the most likely fatal accidents in a rainy season. Some people drown while playing in a dam, and better irrigation does need the communities warned of the dangers, but most drownings occur because someone took a risk.
When rivers and even quite small streams rise with the rains, a lot of people think they can still wade across because the water looks shallow. The problem is that the water is flowing, and often quite fast, and even very shallow water will sweep you away if flowing. The algae that quickly grows on rocks in a stream bed makes the ground slippery, but the main danger is still the speed of the flow.
A person can walk neck deep across a totally still pool, but be swept away by water just reaching their shins or their knees when flowing fast. Yet people still take risks.
It has been suggested that a lot more proper pedestrian footbridges are needed. Having to walk or cycle a few kilometres to use a solid vehicle bridge is not really an attractive option for someone just wanting to go a couple of kilometres to a field, the shops or school.
All local authorities, urban as well as rural, should take far more interest in building simple, effective and cheap footbridges, where they will do the most good. They could also keep sets of plans in their local area officers to dish out to communities willing to do the work, so that the final bridge will be effective and safe.
As always, even motorists need to be told of the dangers of trying to cross a ford where the river is above a certain height, and need to understand the sort of forces involved when a river goes over a low-level bridge. Truck and car drivers caught by a river in flood sometimes just need to sit it out for a few hours, or even a day or two, until the level falls to what is safe.
Why take risks that can be fatal?
Our rains every year should be a time of total rejoicing.
By taking simple precautions, and by reinforcing these lessons in schools and meeting places, we can ensure that accidental deaths from lightning and drowning simply do not happen.
