MSD in lethargic response

Herald Reporter
The Meteorological Services Department (MSD) failed to avail critical information and analysis on time after the country was on Monday night struck by an earthquake whose epicentre was in Botswana.

The earthquake sent tremors that seriously affected some parts of Plumtree, Hwange, Inyathi, Nyamandlovu and Bulawayo and was also felt in Harare and surrounding areas.

Earthquakes are usually followed by some aftershock effects that cause damage to buildings.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors and measures all earthquakes across the world, the Monday earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 and occurred at a latitude 22.621 degrees South and longitude 25.153 degrees East and around 11.6 kilometres below the surface.

The earthquake occurred in an area holding very few people and the nearest town of the epicentre was Moijabana in eastern Botswana.

Within 10 minutes, USGS had already released information detaining its origin and affected areas.

Other countries such as South Africa immediately responded and explained necessary information to the people as soon as the USGS released the information.

However, although MSD director Dr Amos Makarau could not be reached on his phone on Monday night when the quake struck, an official in his department, who cannot be named for professional reasons, said the department would release a statement the following day since it was late.

The earthquake has put the country’s disaster preparedness under the spotlight.

As the USGS was constantly updating the region on the earthquake, Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Department, which has a Seismology department had apparently gone to sleep.

Analysts have always argued that present disaster management systems were more biased towards responding to, rather than preventing mishaps.

The country has recurrently been hit by natural disasters with floods and droughts headlining the list of mishaps, and authorities have on most occasions been caught off-guard.

While the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) says the previous disaster experiences had made the country wiser in terms of dealing with disasters, experts believe more needs to be done to prepare for disasters and lessen their impact.

A technical scientist specialising in infrastructure development, Dr Gatsha Mazithulela, is on the record as saying most of the disasters experienced in Zimbabwe could have been averted by proper planning, adding that the present disaster management model left the country vulnerable to catastrophes.

Botswana, the western region of Zimbabwe, Kariba and going as far as Zambia lie in the western extension of the East African Rift System which is more prone to earthquakes.