AllAfrica.com via Inter Press Service: The fourth largest river in Africa, the mighty Zambezi, is a lifeblood to 32 million people, from land-locked Zambia to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. But its blessing is also its curse. Climate change is blamed for an increase in rainfall and flooding along the river's 2,574 kilometre course through Angola, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.In recent years, hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, livestock and livelihoods, leading to severe food insecurity, an increase in water-borne diseases and long-term environmental degradation in an area already steeped in high levels of HIV and associated poverty.
The start of 2009 saw some of the worst flooding in the area's history… In recent years, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the numbers of floods along the river basin," explained Farid Abdulkadir, the [International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies] disaster management coordinator for the Southern Africa region. "For many communities, these events are now annual crises - leaving them in an almost perpetual cycle of disaster, displacement and recovery.
"The Zambezi Initiative aims to break this cycle; to help communities be prepared for these disasters, and to encourage them to take steps to reduce the devastating impact that they have on their lives."
One strand of the initiative is longer-term planning, the implementation of robust early warning systems, and creating a more integrated approach across the region between Red Cross volunteers and branches. Karen Hvid, IFRC's Angola representative, said: "The important thing is to give the communities tools to be able to react in time to the hazards and how they react in those first 48 hours before help can arrive. If a community knows its vulnerabilities and its capacity, it can learn to support itself."…
The Zambesi River basin, map by Worldtraveller, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
No comments:
Post a Comment