Sundaymail Editor
It seems Mother Nature is becoming increasingly grumpy. Within the past five years, which coincides with President Mnangagwa’s reign, the world, Zimbabwe included, has had the ignominy of experiencing the unpleasant vicissitudes of both benign and malign weather conditions with worrying regularity.
For instance, during the cropping season between October 2018 and January 2019, rainfall totals over the central and western parts of Zimbabwe were among the lowest in 40 years.
Not before 1979 had the country been so parched. As is always the case, doomsayers naturally prophesied doom and gloom.
In one of the frenzied and dramatic scaremongering reports that emerged at the time, ITV News correspondent Penelope Marshall told the world that millions in Zimbabwe were on the brink of starvation.
“We drove for miles and miles through what felt like a climate change wilderness — a parched desert where nothing grows.
“Most of rural Zimbabwe is now without crops, without livestock and without water.
The land is like sand — and the millions trying to live off it are on the brink of starvation,” she grimly reported.
It was an extremely tough period, but, ultimately, no one died of hunger.
Despite the continued recycling of such overhyped outlandish reports during periods when our teapot-shaped Republic has gone through excruciatingly difficult times, Bishop Lazi is yet to come across a grave of anyone who succumbed to hunger in Zimbabwe.
Ides of March
But 2019 was extraordinarily tough.
Barely before we could catch a break, on March 15, we were on the receiving end of what was the worst-ever weather-related disaster on the continent.
The monster-sized storm — known as Cyclone Idai — barrelled through the eastern parts of Chimanimani and Chipinge.
All in all, it affected four of the country’s 10 provinces — Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Mashonaland East.
Unfortunately, it came at an extortionate cost in human lives. A total of 341 people were killed, while 270 000 were affected.
More than half the land under maize, bananas and tubers in the affected areas was wiped away, including 18 irrigation schemes, 362 cattle, 514 goats and 17 000 chickens.
Till this day, some families do not know what happened to their loved ones.
Overall, more than 157 were reported missing, of which 82 were buried by their counterparts in neighbouring Mozambique, where the raging floodwaters violently spat them out.
Cyclone Idai is one extreme weather event that many in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi would want to forget.
Yet Zimbabwe, which carries the extra burden of sanctions imposed by the United States and UK, among other European countries, still stands tall, strong and proud.
But the malign consequences of climate change have been felt far and wide.
The world watched in shock this year as almost a third of Pakistan was submerged by floods caused by torrential monsoon rains and melting glaciers.
About 1 700 people consequently lost their lives, while 33 million others were affected.
The damage from the disaster is estimated at a whopping US$30 billion.
The floodwaters might have receded, but Pakistan is still grappling with rising cholera and malaria cases, among the manifold challenges from the fallout.
And, just about the same time, severe floods were also swallowing whole communities in Nigeria, killing 600 people and displacing 1,3 million.
All this highlights the extent of the calamity that has been wrought by a vengeful Mother Nature, who has had to put up with toxic fumes belched from the ravenous industries in the Western world for more than a century.
Benign
But presently, in Zimbabwe, we might probably be experiencing the benign impact of climate change through the brutal rolling power blackouts occasioned by low water levels in Kariba Dam, which powers the hydropower station that has become a vital cog in local power generation over the years.
Although it proved to be a valuable asset ever since it was first commissioned on May 17, 1960 by Queen Elizabeth II, the increased regularity of cyclical flood and drought events in the catchment area is now threatening its viability as a reliable power plant for Zimbabwe going forward.
Perhaps it is only fitting that Kariba is giving us migraines in the same year the Queen dies. Kikikiki. However, what some people fail to appreciate is that climate change does not only mean drought but flooding as well.
Like in 2010, the reservoir was almost filled to capacity owing to the La Niña-induced wet season, and this resulted in increased allocation of water for power generation.
This means the period running from December to February will be critical for the outlook period for both Zimbabwe and neighbouring Zambia insofar as energy security is concerned. Considering the horrors and grim consequences of climate change, power cuts are only but a small price to pay relative to adverse weather conditions that threaten lives at a gargantuan scale.
But, as Bishop Lazarus predicted last week, this has not stopped opportunists seeking political capital from our current unfortunate circumstances. They were all over the internet crusading for cheap point-scoring.
CCC self-appointed leader Nelson Chamisa even went to absurd lengths of expediently penning a convoluted and meaningless opinion-editorial that was long on ignorance but short on substance and common sense.
It allowed him to conveniently and temporarily forget the ineptitude of his councillors running our cities, which are plagued by soaring diarrhoea cases spawned by epileptic supplies of potable water.
Get this, gentle reader: Bad and seemingly worse as at is, our power crisis is ephemeral.
All things being equal, in a couple of weeks, the new Hwange Unit 7 will be injecting 300MW into the grid, with Unit 8, which is lagging behind by three months, following thereafter. An additional 600MW from the two new units alone will clearly bring the much-needed and expected relief.Since the old units ordinarily produce 400MW, we can expect a vital 1000MW from the thermal plant.
Essentially, this eases the pain.
Meanwhile, rainfall activity will be picking up in Kariba’s catchment area.
Vision
You see, ever since the Southern African Power Pool warned in 2004 of a crippling power crisis that was forecast to hit the region in 2007, Zimbabwe has been progressively investing in new power projects.
One of the big-ticket investments was the US$533 million Kariba South Power Station Expansion Project commissioned by President Mnangagwa on March 28, 2018, which added 300MW to the grid. Ironically, it is the same project that has now been temporarily becalmed by low water levels in Kariba.
The expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station also did not come cheap, as the investment is more than US$1 billion.
There are quite a lot of renewable energy projects that are in the pipeline across Zimbabwe as well.
Households and mining companies are increasingly resorting to solar and weaning themselves from the grid.
This helps significantly reduce demand.
It will all come together in perfect time.
The President — just as he did when he launched austerity for prosperity, which put the economy on a solid foundation to support sustainable economic growth – is highly motivated to deliver enduring long-term goals rather than populist policies for short-term gratification.
We are living through history.
Posterity will look back at the current epoch and marvel at the sheer progress registered when the world was under great strain.
This is the hallmark of visionary and wise leadership.
Proverbs 13:22 says: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”
But it is perfectly understandable that some would be greatly distressed by the blackouts and unlikely be comforted by future promises.
Scientists have long discovered that our emotions can easily overpower our logical deduction skills.
David Laibson, a professor of Economics at Harvard University, crucially observed that “our emotional brain has a hard time imagining the future, even though our logical brain clearly sees the future consequences of our current actions”.
In any case, the actions we have invested and are investing in will bring gratification in the future. We will easily navigate our current challenges the same way we have overcame dire situations in our recent past.
Bishop out!
Online Reporter