Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu
A STORY published in this paper two days ago about rampant environmental degradation in some of this country’s provinces was so chilling to consciences of environmental protectionists as to pause this damning question: Was Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Authority asleep or watching gleefully as vast tracts of life-saving vegetation in several provinces went up in smoke?
We refer in this discourse to statistics released by EMA and cataloguing destruction of land by veld fires showing Mashonaland West as the worst affected followed by Matabeleland North province with Hwange, Lupane, Binga, Bubi and Umguza named as fire-prone districts.
EMA said Matabeleland North province accounted for about 200 000 hectares of land destroyed.
In its statistical report EMA said Matabeleland North province had maintained a second position nationally for the past seven years.
The EMA report mentioned no specific cause of the fire it blamed for the destruction of land, a lifeline for human beings and other creatures, but it is known that hunting with fire and using fire to clear land for agriculture are the common causes of veld fires.
The EMA report however mentioned a decrease in the hectares of land destroyed by veld fires and which it attributed to interventions by the Environmental Body itself and by the Forestry Commission through technical assistance rendered to communities, joint awareness campaigns, training and capacity-development programmes.
But, surely why did those interventions not occur timeously to save the land destroyed and/or why was the hand of the law not brought in to stop the rot before so much damage was caused?
Or can it now be said with much relief that chiefs and their subordinates have been trained as effective guardians of the land over which they preside in order to prevent further destruction by fire, a national asset for the livelihoods of the future generations?
But not only that, Members of Parliament in rural constituencies also have a very, very important duty to ensure that no rampant land destruction occurs; otherwise they do not deserve the support of rural folk who sent them to the august House and for whom land is the bedrock of their lives.
In the final analysis no spade must be spared in saying that Zimbabweans who bury their consciences by playing with fire, like children, are major contributors to the hunger now ravaging millions of Zimbabweans and other people elsewhere in the global village.
That is so because dangerous gasses released from bush fire smoke bellowing high into the atmosphere combine with other dangerous gasses from unmodified factory chimneys and coal plants across the globe in corroding and rendering wafer thin the ozone layer that protects earth from dangerous rays of the sun which then hits earth causing global warming and consequential droughts and food shortages under which Zimbabwe and many other country reels today.
So where was this country’s environmental guardian, EMA which must protect grass from destruction from fire as well as trees which absorb and sink dangerous gasses that damage the ozone with disastrous consequences for human beings as well as for God’s other creations?
Online Reporter