The Zimbabwe and Zambia border is home to Victoria Falls one of the natural wonders of the world. This stunning waterfall has been affected by the worst drought that the countries have experienced in decades.
This is the time of year when tourists normally flock to this part of Southern Africa. This year’s drought, however, has affected tourism and vendors alike. Dominic Nyambe sells handicrafts on the Zambian side of the falls in Livingstone.
“In previous years, when it gets dry, it’s not to this extent, this [is] our first experience of seeing it like this, it affects us because… clients… can see on the internet [that the falls are low]… We don’t have so many tourists,” he said.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the Zambian President, tweeted images of the falls in October.
These pictures of Victoria Falls are a stark reminder of what climate change is doing to our environment and our livelihood, he wrote. It is with no doubt that developing countries like Zambia are the most impacted by climate change and the least able to afford its consequences. said lungu
The Zambezi River Authority reports the river is well under its average and the flow of water is its lowest since 1995. Both countries are reliant on hydropower from the Kariba Dam which is located downriver from the waterfalls. Taps are running dry throughout the countries and some 45 million people are dealing with a food shortage due to crop failures.
Zambezi River expert and hydrologist Harald Kling, cautioned not to put too much blame on climate change saying: “If they become more frequent, then you can start saying, ok, this may be climate change.”
He goes on to say, he is a bit surprised by this drought because the last drought was only three years ago.
Elisha Moyo, Principal Climate Change Researcher at Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Environment, Climate and Tourism, said the overall flow of water has been reduced by more than 50% this year.
Lungu goes on to talk about the people who are questioning climate change:
We have no time to play politics with climate change. It’s a serious problem and a genuine one and we are surprised when people trivialize it and say it’s not real. They are living in a different world but this world we live in Zambia we are feeling the effect of climate change very adversely and they’re impacting on everyone.
Whether or not people want to say that climate change is to blame, the fact remains the area is facing its worse drought in many years. Millions of people have been affected by this and when heavy rains happen after droughts, flooding usually ensues. The ground becomes so dry that it does not absorb the water at the same rate. Climate change has to do with whether extremes of all forms, not just an increase in temperature.
