Chronicle EditorStephen Mpofu
As the vagaries of global warming surge, Zimbabweans and other people in the African homestead of the global village must work hand in glove to obliterate the effects of climate change which do not discriminate human races or animal species in their destructive forays.
In previous discourses in these columns this communicologist has spotlighted the destruction of forests for firewood by people eager to make a quick buck in urban areas when in hindsight or ignorance those forest plunderers do not realise the negative effects of their destructive acts.
For instance, trees absorb and sink carbon gases form veld fires, unmodified factory chimneys as well as from coal plants and all of which combine in the upper atmosphere to render wafer thin the ozone layer which protects earth from the destructive rays of the sun so that, in the final analysis, resultant heat-waves alter temperatures, causing global warming and droughts that have decimated food crops in this country and elsewhere with dwindling water supplies as one of the effects that Zimbabweans face at this time in point.
Veld fires also used by reckless people to expose game in their hunting excursions are recently known to have killed people in Zimbabwe’s neighbour, South Africa, with other people reportedly fleeing for their lives from homes destroyed by fire fanned by strong winds somewhere in the eastern parts of our global village.
Now add to the destructions mentioned above the “I-care-less” attitudes displayed by gold panners in various parts of the country, putting the lives of both people and animals in dire stress if not danger in some cases.
Panners today stand accused of worsening the shortage of water supplies in Bulawayo, for instance, by digging up banks of dams supplying water to Bulawayo in their desire for a quick buck but without considering how their reckless activities endanger the lives of fellow citizens among whom are no doubt their relatives.
Elsewhere in the country, panners are known to have dug up river banks in search of gold causing the siltation of rivers when rain fell and so depriving villagers of sources of their domestic water supplies.
If Government authorities do not take swift protective measures boreholes being dug across the country under the Government’s auspices might be rendered non-functional by gold seekers indiscriminately ripping up earth in search of mineral fortunes.
There have also been reports of cattle in some areas of Matabeleland South and the Midlands provinces getting stuck and dying in the mud in dams that are drying up for lack of rainfall and supplies of water.
With no definite end to the recurrent droughts resulting from global warming, should not Government authorities and villagers take swift protective measures for livestock and animals account for villager’s wealth in the first place?
This village born-and-bred writer humbly believes that fencing out stretches of dams or lakes where livestock drink might be the ideal protective measure against further animal losses, putting villagers in dire stress for lack of draught power among other benefits for them.
Concrete troughs can then be built alongside the fenced dams or lakes into which water is pumped for livestock to drink.
State authorities no doubt have better alternative solutions, but what remains imperative all the same is for swift action to be taken before more animals and probably even game get stuck in the mud of drying up water reservoirs.
This writer believes that the SADC Heads of State summit taking place in Harare this weekend is an opportune forum to consider and find solutions to the diverse effects of global warming under which Africa and other parts of the global village are under siege.
Online Reporter