El Niño disaster for people and wildlife
THE 280km, man-made Lake Kariba is part of the Kariba Dam, which was built between 1955 and 1959 in the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The dam provides hydroelectric power to the Kariba north power station on the Zambian side and Kariba south power station on the Zimbabwean side. These provide most of the electricity for the two nations.
The remote Kariba Dam, about five hours’ drive from Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, and a three-hour drive from Zambian capital Lusaka, also supports fisheries, conservation, tourism and recreation. More than 100 000 people live in Kariba town and the Nyaminyami and Binga rural districts. It is also a religious site and locals believe it shelters their ancestors and Nyaminyami, the river god.
Since the early 2010s, the El Niño weather pattern has induced droughts and heatwaves in the Zambezi region, causing a drop in the water levels at Lake Kariba.
El Niño is an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that brings hotter temperatures and lower rainfall to southern Africa for five months at a time.
By April 8, the Zambezi River Authority, which owns and manages Lake Kariba, announced that water in the lake had dropped to just 13.52% of its usable storage for electricity generation. Water levels fluctuate according to rainfall – this time last year, the lake was at 21.94% of its usable storage for electricity generation, but levels dropped as low as 12% in 2015.
Low water levels in Lake Kariba have had a huge impact on the people in the area. The key areas of concern: ¡ Survival. Many people survive directly off the lake by catching and selling fish. The drought reduces fish spawning areas, which means that fishers who live near Lake Kariba catch few fish during times of drought. My research has found that during times of drought in Kariba, crocodiles take fish from the fishers’ nets and destroy the nets. In retaliation, fishers attack crocodiles with spears and logs, exposing themselves to crocodile attacks.
¡ Human-wildlife conflict. The area is a hot spot for human-wildlife conflict. A drop in the water levels results in increased competition over water resources between people and wild animals, resulting in humanwildlife conflict. Animals that normally drink water from far-away river estuaries start approaching the parts of the lake populated by humans. Clashes between elephants, buffalo, baboons, lions and humans increase as they have to share reduced waterscapes. Poaching. There’s also an increase in poaching as impala, kudu, waterbuck and duiker move closer to human settlements to seek water and people seek more sources of food and income because of the economic downturn caused by the drought.
Tourism. Numbers drop off. Game drives along the lake to the estuaries, which have unique flora and fauna and allow tourists a closer view of wild animals and birds, come to a standstill during times of drought. Tourist fishing in the estuaries dries up. The opening of the floodgates at the dam walls, which were a drawcard for tourism, stops as the
water levels are too low for this. Long walks to collect water. Water level reductions burden women and children from fishing camps and villages who fetch water for home use from the lake. Residents say water levels have dropped so much that fishing camps are up to 2km further away from the lake. Women and children have been injured and killed by animals when they fetch water.
Trade disruptions. Cross-border traders in Kariba who do business between Zimbabwe and Zambia are also affected. Kariba traders often cross the border to sell fish in Zambia but, with low catches, this is no longer possible. Also, most traders depended on income from fishing to purchase goods from Zambia for resale in Zimbabwe.
Proactive measures are required to minimise harm to lives and livelihoods. Over the long term, droughts could become more severe and the Kariba Dam could stop producing as much power. The Lake Kariba region is a very hot and windy region that can support onshore and offshore wind turbines and solar parks. The government must plan for this, so that the communities can have sustainable electricity with renewable energy projects that support alternative livelihoods.
The national parks authorities in Zimbabwe and Zambia need to put in robust measures for decreasing the number of human-wildlife conflicts. This can be done by identifying areas of high animal activity at the lake and directing humans away from this. More awareness should be created about the relationship between a drop in water levels and human-wildlife conflict, which the community is unaware of.
The water-governing authorities in the Zambezi area should draw on local knowledge and practices in times of drought. For example, the authorities could promote the rainmaking ceremonies by traditional groups of the Tonga, Shangwe and Korekore.
The groups have lived in the area for centuries and believe that water drops are a result of angry ancestral and water spirits. The governing authorities may want to fund more of such ceremonies as communities lack funds to enact the ceremonies. |
Matanzima is a researcher at the University of Queensland. He grew up on Lake Kariba and has spent the past 10 years researching the area.