‘Place priority on flood, drought victims’
GOVERNMENT should put flood and drought victims as number one priority when receiving recovery support and farming incentives, Care for Nature Zambia has advised.
The organisation believes that the windy weather conditions and drop in temperatures which is being experienced in some parts of the country will impact heavily on women and families that have been affected by floods and drought.
Care for Nature Zambia is a non-profit making Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) that ensures that there was a balance in how people consume and conserve natural resources.
According to the Climate Change Gender Action Plan, Zambia is already feeling the effects of climate change with increasing rates and severity of floods, leaving hunger and poverty in their wake, with each affecting at least a million people.
The 2019/2020 Recovery Action Plan further states that about 2.3 million people during the lean season between October 2019 and March 2020 were estimated to be facing worse food security situation. Care for Nature Zambia Executive Director, Nsama Kearns, said that flood and drought victims were in need of long term empowerment.
She was speaking in an interview in Kitwe.
“Apart from causing negative health conditions, the predicated change in weather may affect home based gardening, blow off roofs and damage houses especially those built of mud or have been recently rehabilitated after suffering collapse from floods,” she said.
Ms Kearns observed that this was a crucial and most critical time to implement the Climate Change Gender Action Plan on grounds that climate change driven disasters were threatening food security at house hold level which would in turn accelerate poverty.
She said that the problematic risk of a single flood in the future was estimated to cause an absolute loss of US$ 25 million to the Zambian economy which she said the country was not ready for.
“Agriculture and food security, education, health, nutrition, infrastructure, social protection and water and sanitation are some of the key sectors of development that require intervention under the recovery plan,” Ms Kearns said.
She further stated that there was urgent need to build community resilience to natural disasters through economic empowerment programmes, livelihood diversification and assert creation at household level.
She however said that the NGO was ready to work with Government to ensure that families affected by natural disasters received information, awareness, disaster risk reduction, preparedness and early warning signs.
Ms Kearns added that her organisation would want to see empowerment for victims that will help them to recover and cope from the effects of floods and drought including the ravaging corona virus pandemic.