Every
day,
Takawira
Mudzviti
takes
his
six
herd
of
cattle
to
his
village’s
last
drinking
point,
a
dam
along
the
dried-up
Mudzi
River.
The
Chibundu
Dam,
at
its
lowest
levels
in
the
past
20
years
according
to
villagers,
is
the
last
drinking
source
of
water
for
livestock
within
a
radius
of
about
20
kilometers
(12.4
miles).
Driving
their
cattle
over
long
distances
to
drink
from
the
Chibundu
Dam
every
morning
is
a
desperate
but
now
common
measure
for
many
like
Mudzvitii
in
Mazarura
village
of
Mutoko
District,
located
about
160
kilometers
(99.2
miles)
east
of
Zimbabwe’s
capital
city
of
Harare.
“I
have
to
take
my
cattle
for
drinking
that
far
away,
otherwise
they
die,”
he
said.
“I
am
keeping
them
for
future
use
but
others
have
already
been
selling
off
their
herd
of
cattle
cheaply
because
the
dealers
know
that
people
are
desperate
under
the
current
drought.”
A
father
of
three,
Mudzviti
and
his
family
are
among
the more
than
27
million
people across
southern
Africa
afflicted
by
a
historic
drought
—
triggered
by
El
Niño
and
exacerbated
by
climate
change
—
and
a
devastating
food
crisis
that
is
the
worst
the
region
has
seen
in
decades.
According
to
the
United
Nations
World
Food
Programme,
about
21
million
children
are
malnourished,
as
the
region in
October
entered
a
lean
season between
harvests
where
food
access
is
expected
to
worsen
each
month
until
the
spring.
Many
people
in
Mutoko
and
other
rural
districts
of
Zimbabwe
traditionally
rely
on
agriculture
—
farming
tomatoes,
onions
and
vegetables
—
or
rearing
goats,
cattle
and
chickens
that
they
sell
at
a
big
marketplace
in
Harare.
It
has
been
a
tough
past
few
months
for
Mudzviti
and
his
fellow
villagers
as
their
water
sources
—
streams,
dams
and
waterways
—
have
depleted
during
a
dry
season
this
year
in
which
rainfall
has
been
below
average.
The
lack
of
water
during
the
drought
has
decimated
crop
harvests,
while
forage
for
cattle
and
goats
is
no
longer
sustainable,
with thousands
of
cattle
dying in
the
region.
The
difficult
conditions
have
led
Mudzviiti
and
many
from
his
village
to
rely
on
food
handouts
from
nongovernmental
organizations
to
sustain
themselves.
It’s
been
ordinary
Zimbabwean
villagers
who
are
bearing
the
brunt
of
the
drought largely
fueled
by
El
Niño, affecting
women
and
the
elderly
the
most
and
leading
to
a
steep
rise
in
teenage
pregnancies,
according
to
Archbishop
Alex
Thomas
Kaliyanil
of
the
Diocese
of
Bulawayo.
“This
year
there
was
no
harvest
at
all
due
to
a
totally
failed
rainy
season,”
he
said.
About
67%
of
Zimbabwe’s
total
population
of
around
16
million
lives
in
rural
areas,
according
to data
from
the
World
Bank.
A June
report
from
UNICEF found
that
about
580,000
Zimbabwean
children
were
already
facing
severe
food
poverty,
“a
number
that
could
rise
with
the
current
El
Niño
induced
drought.”
Impacts
from
the
drought
have
not
just
been
dire
in
Zimbabwe
but
are
having
consequences
across
the
entire
southern
Africa
region.
According
to
the
World
Food
Programme,
five
countries
—
Lesotho,
Malawi,
Namibia,
Zambia
and
Zimbabwe
—
have
declared national
drought
disasters this
year,
while
Angola
and
Mozambique
also
face
severe
situations.
The
U.N.
food
aid
agency,
which
works
with
Caritas,
World
Vision
and
Christian
Aid
among
others
for
food
distribution
and
assistance,
is
targeting
to
assist
upwards
of
6.5
million
people
in
southern
Africa.
To
date,
it
says
it
has
raised
just
one-fifth
of
the
$369
million
required
for
interventions.
For
Zimbabwe,
the
current
drought
has
worsened
unemployment
and
poor
economic
prospects
for
the
rural
populace.
Harrington
Chuma,
national
coordinator
for
Caritas
Zimbabwe,
pointed
to
climate
change
as
a
contributor
to
food
insecurity
in
Zimbabwe.
According
to
scientists, El
Niño
has
fueled
the
drought in
southern
Africa,
as
the
naturally
recurring
weather
pattern
shifted
rainfall
patterns
early
in
the
year.
That
phenomenon,
when
combined
with
hotter
temperatures
and
drier
conditions
due
to
climate
change,
can
lead
to more
extreme
and
extensive
droughts.
A 2022
survey
by
Afrobarometer found
that
60%
of
Zimbabweans,
most
of
them
rural
dwellers,
have
been
witnessing
intensifying
severity
in
drought
impacts
over
the
past
decade.
Catholic
aid
agencies like
Caritas,
the
U.K.-based
CAFOD
and
U.S-based
Catholic
Relief
Services
have
been
assisting
rural
farmers
to
adopt
new
farming
methods
to
adapt
to
more
extreme
conditions,
including
growing
drought-resistant
crops.
The
agencies
have
also
provided
funds
to
drill
boreholes
for
green
gardens
—
cash
crop
gardens
in
typically
arid
and
dry
regions
of
the
country.
But
faced
with
the
severity
of
an
El
Niño-induced
drought,
half
of
boreholes
had
already
dried
up
by
May,
Caritas
Zimbabwe
said.
In
addition,
the
staple
corn
crop output
fell
more
than
70% this
year,
and
water
for
drinking
and
farming
has
become
scarce.
While
the
impact
of
the
current
drought
has
been
more
pronounced
on
food
shortages,
social
impacts
from
the
food
shortages
are
worsening,
too,
Chuma
said.
“Food
insecurity
has
resulted
in
underage
girls
being
pushed
into
arranged
marriages
by
food-insecure
households.
At
[the]
community
level
tensions
have
been
noted
as
people
compete,
especially
for
water,”
he
said.
According
to
UNICEF, one-in-three
women in
Zimbabwe
are
married
before
adulthood,
and more
than
20%
of
adolescents give
birth
before
age
19.
While
child
marriages
were
not
highly
prevalent
in
the
southern
parts
of
Zimbabwe,
Kaliyanil,
the
Bulawayo
archbishop,
said
teenage
pregnancies,
domestic
violence,
and
drug
and
substance
abuse
“is
very
much
rampant”
in
the
region,
along
with
“an
alarming
rate
of
divorce
cases.”
In
addition
to
promoting
sustainable
and
climate-smart
agriculture
techniques
and
procuring
clean
water
and
nutritional,
traditional
foods,
Caritas
and
CRS
have
started
to
implement
food-for-assets
programs
—
setting
up
infrastructure
such
as
dams,
irrigation
systems
and
fishponds
—
and
food
assistance
programs
until
December.
That
still
falls
months
short
of
the
lean
season’s
expected
end
in
March,
when
new
harvests
sprout.
“Right
now,
we
face
an
earlier
and
deeper
lean
season,
the
time
between
depletion
of
household
food
stocks
and
the
next
harvest,”
Leighla
Bowers,
spokesperson
for
WFP
in
Southern
Africa
told
EarthBeat
by
email.
CRS
Zimbabwe
has
launched
the
Zwitile
(“do
it
yourself”)
project
with
$2
million
in
financing
from
USAID
to
reach
about
13,400
people
in
dire
need
of
food
in
some
of
the
worst
affected
districts
of
Zimbabwe,
including
Gwanda
and
Mangwe
in
the
Matabeleland
South
province.
The
program
aims
to
reduce
communities’
dependency
on
humanitarian
assistance
through
rehabilitation
of
dams,
upskilling
and
deepening
capacity
for
self-sustainable
projects
such
as
green
gardens.
“Our
goal
is
to
ensure
that
households
meet
their
basic
food
requirements
by
promoting
climate-smart
agriculture
practices.
We
look
forward
to
working
collaboratively
with
all
stakeholders
to
help
vulnerable
people,
together,
during
this
difficult
time,”
Tapfuma
Murove,
CRS
Country
Representative
in
Zimbabwe, said
in
a
May
press
release.
As
the
ongoing
drought
has
impacted
rural
Zimbabweans
the
most,
the
situation
is
worsened
by
“constrained”
funding
falling
far
short
of
what’s
required,
Kaliyanil
said,
limiting
the
church’s
ability
to
intervene
while
“needs
[are]
very
high.”
Caritas
has
made
an
emergency
appeal
for
$350,000
for
its
school
food
program,
but
the
response
rate
has
been
low,
Chuma
said,
with
less
than
5%
of
funds
secured
as
of
August.
Other
humanitarian
agencies
like
WFP
are
preparing
to
distribute
food
aid
to
the
worst-affected
districts
of
Zimbabwe.
For
Mudzviti,
he
hopes
that
the
rainy
season,
which
typically
starts
in
November,
comes
early
this
year
so
that
he
can
till
his
land,
grow
his
herd
of
cattle
and
plant
on
more
land
so
his
harvest
is
big
enough
to
last
two
seasons.
“It
has
been
a
tough
drought.
…
We
just
want
to
harvest
more
and
ensure
that
there
is
water
for
the
cattle;
I
can’t
cope
with
this
desperate
situation
of
driving
the
cattle
seven
kilometers
away
just
for
them
to
access
drinking
water,”
he
said.