When climate change is blamed for bad governance in Zambia
Welcome back to Climate Weekly!
Today we are heading to Zambia with Natasha Sakala, a journalist who has been battling recurring floods in her home city of Lusaka.
Muli bwanji nonse?
That means “How are you all?” in Chewa, my first language from the East of the country.
Recently, we’ve seen intense flooding throughout Lusaka, our capital. Homes and roads were filled with water making areas close to my home, like Chawama and Kanyama uninhabitable for some of the residents.
Now this isn’t exactly a climate story. In a township like Kanyama, floods have become an almost annual ceremony of bad governance. The country has been experiencing slightly above normal rainfall, but the unplanned nature of so many of our neighbourhoods, poor drainage and indiscriminate waste management are the true cause of these latest floods. They also create a real risk for water-borne disease outbreaks.
Late last year, Charles Banda, the Minister of Local Government, claimed the floods were attributed to heavy rainfall, but Lusaka’s drainage system was overwhelmed by rubbish.
It sounds like an ongoing joke, but as a resident, it’s heart wrenching to see this level of unnecessary suffering. Many families are now displaced, with some forced to live in pretty horrible conditions as rising flood waters spread fecal matter from pit latrines across our townships.
In response, our Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) described the situation as desperate and announced the disbursement of K1 million (US$45,662.10). The money might sound small, but we’re in the midst of one of the world’s worst debt crises.
While the government is now focussed on pumping out water, disinfecting the areas and providing water and food, the longer term solution is to fix the drainage system in the near future.
All the while, the Lusaka City Mayor, Miles Sampa was away on a 40 day honeymoon. He apparently returned disappointed to find the city was littered with garbage. Ok, Mr. Sampa!
During this time, the government announced a series of national parks will now be open for plantations and ‘development’. This includes the Maposa National Forest no.4, Muva Hill and the Mansana Forest Reserves in Luanshya.
Zambia is currently losing it’s forests at an incredible rate, especially considering how vital they could be for our long term health. The Maposa Forest is a rain belt, and has traditionally acted as a shield against mining pollution for farmers over the last 100+ years of copper mining. It is now due to become a human settlement, with a high school and a modern mini hospital. Replacing Maposa Forest with a settlement would be disastrous.
This move has frustrated many, especially environmental activist William Harrington, who sees it as a clear indication that the government just isn’t committed to environmental protection or sustainable development.
Local conservation organisation, Care For Nature Zambia (CaNZ), also hopes the decisions would be overturned, and hopes the area could become an opportunity for green jobs such as bee keeping, mushroom growing, charcoal briquettes, caterpillar harvesting local food and medicine processing.
Thought of the week:
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the global COVID vaccine rollout imitates so much of the world’s climate change debate.
Just like the climate crisis, COVID-19 is a global challenge that has impacted the whole world, but some countries far worse than others. Now, with a series of vaccines available, there seems to be a range of potential solutions. However, those solutions come at an incredible price for most of the world’s developing countries.
While some of the richest nations in the world have pre-purchased more than 3x their required COVID-19 vaccines (Australia), countries like South Africa have been forced to pay double the market price just to get some (from Britain), and the Philippines is being forced to literally trade human nurses for vaccine viles (with Germany).
This comes after a year of promises made to share vaccines with those who needed it the most, and commitments to treat all human lives equally.
Wateva
Watching this play out, it reminds me a lot of the promises I’ve seen throughout my time at the UN climate talks. I remember watching in 2011, as rich countries promised $100 billion in climate finance, and more to come every year after 2020. They promised technology transfers, and they promised that those who have contributed the most to climate change would do the most to fix it.
Sadly, those promises don’t look too crash hot these days.
Right now I can’t think of anything that compares to trading nurses for vaccines, but I do hope we don’t get there anytime soon in the climate space.
Thanks for reading this week’s Climate Weekly.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved, email me at chris@climatetracker.org.