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The issue of Climate Change is one that has been of major global debate for so many years. Unfortunately, for a number of Africans, it is something they believe to be none of their concern but that of the Western nations and for others, a completely unheard of or non-existent phenomenon.
Zambia, located in the southern region of the African continent is of no exception in sharing such views on the issue. The country which is mainly a tropical savannah grassland has in the past few years began to open up to the existence and occurrence of Climate Change due to the disturbed weather patterns that have created a chain reaction of events leaving many to search for answers.
Over the last two decades, there have been cases of extreme drought around 1991-92, 2004-05, heavy flooding in 2006-07, 2009/10 and prolonged dry seasons in the years 2014-16. The occurrence of these events has mainly led to the disturbance of the agricultural sector in the country which is the second largest economic activity from the conventional copper mining.
Because a large number of Zambians especially those in rural areas depend on agriculture for their survival, poor to no rainfall and heavy flooding has caused food insecurity and reduced the quality/quantity of the food basket and personal incomes while leading to the hiking of food and commodity prices for Zambians living in urban areas with the price of maize-meal, the ingredient for the nations staple food, “Nshima” doubling in the past three years.
The other major effect of Climate Change in Zambia has been the occurrence of droughts that apart from disturbing the agricultural activities, have led to the drying up the country’s major water ways thus disrupting the normal production of Hydro-power electricity and threatening the water supply of people, wildlife and fish.
Zambia largely depends of hydro-electric power and the dying up of major water sources has led to the cutting down of production which in turn caused the rationing of power distribution by load-shedding. In this event, some areas have experienced 8 to 14 hours of no power and in some extreme cases as long as 36 hours or more.
The system that characterized the last three years led to the distortion of regular household activities and profit loses for businesses that highly depend on the availability of power such as restaurants, salons, millers, typing and printing services etc.
In order to cope with the new living conditions, many Zambian households have turned to the use of alternative energy sources for cooking purposes. The most common being the use of fuel wood and charcoal. Charcoal which is made from trees has increased demand by triple over the last few years and tree cutting has increased dangerously to meet the growing commodity demand.
All this has sped up the process of deforestation thereby creating an environment characterized by soil erosion and reduced rainfall formation leading to a cycle of prolonged dry seasons and little rainfall or drought.
Such events pose a risk for the future generation’s livelihood and it is believed that the youth and governing bodies should be major participants in combating these environmental problems.
Because the youth play a huge role in the society, their voice can be used as a catalyst for promoting a society of environmental conscience citizens.
This can be done by organizing workshops and community outreach programmes to educate people in various residential areas concentrating more on women and children on the causes of environmental problems, their effects and solutions. Another way would be by becoming activists and visionaries of change as change agents by the advocating of wetland and wildlife protection, actively organizing regular community clean-ups, tree planting and leading lifestyles that show support and love to mother Earth i.e promoting waste management and recycling, creating eco-prenuership by learning certain skills and creating materials of use and value from waste, water and energy conservation.
Over the last two decades, there have been cases of extreme drought around 1991-92, 2004-05, heavy flooding in 2006-07, 2009/10 and prolonged dry seasons in the years 2014-16. The occurrence of these events has mainly led to the disturbance of the agricultural sector in the country which is the second largest economic activity from the conventional copper mining.
Because a large number of Zambians especially those in rural areas depend on agriculture for their survival, poor to no rainfall and heavy flooding has caused food insecurity and reduced the quality/quantity of the food basket and personal incomes while leading to the hiking of food and commodity prices for Zambians living in urban areas with the price of maize-meal, the ingredient for the nations staple food, “Nshima” doubling in the past three years.
The other major effect of Climate Change in Zambia has been the occurrence of droughts that apart from disturbing the agricultural activities, have led to the drying up the country’s major water ways thus disrupting the normal production of Hydro-power electricity and threatening the water supply of people, wildlife and fish.
Zambia largely depends of hydro-electric power and the dying up of major water sources has led to the cutting down of production which in turn caused the rationing of power distribution by load-shedding. In this event, some areas have experienced 8 to 14 hours of no power and in some extreme cases as long as 36 hours or more.
The system that characterized the last three years led to the distortion of regular household activities and profit loses for businesses that highly depend on the availability of power such as restaurants, salons, millers, typing and printing services etc.
In order to cope with the new living conditions, many Zambian households have turned to the use of alternative energy sources for cooking purposes. The most common being the use of fuel wood and charcoal. Charcoal which is made from trees has increased demand by triple over the last few years and tree cutting has increased dangerously to meet the growing commodity demand.
All this has sped up the process of deforestation thereby creating an environment characterized by soil erosion and reduced rainfall formation leading to a cycle of prolonged dry seasons and little rainfall or drought.
Such events pose a risk for the future generation’s livelihood and it is believed that the youth and governing bodies should be major participants in combating these environmental problems.
Because the youth play a huge role in the society, their voice can be used as a catalyst for promoting a society of environmental conscience citizens.
This can be done by organizing workshops and community outreach programmes to educate people in various residential areas concentrating more on women and children on the causes of environmental problems, their effects and solutions. Another way would be by becoming activists and visionaries of change as change agents by the advocating of wetland and wildlife protection, actively organizing regular community clean-ups, tree planting and leading lifestyles that show support and love to mother Earth i.e promoting waste management and recycling, creating eco-prenuership by learning certain skills and creating materials of use and value from waste, water and energy conservation.
The Zambian society is far from fully adopting a state of environmental conscience citizens but with active participation through awareness projects and education from its young citizens, the future generation and can be a generation of Earth warriors.
The Zambian society is far from fully adopting a state of environmental conscience citizens but with active participation through awareness projects and education from its young citizens, the future generation and can be a generation of Earth warriors.
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