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Some villagers in one of Zimbabwe’s driest areas are appealing for food and fear their livestock, their source of livelihoods, will die due to a lack of water.
Our cattle are dying because there is not enough water to drink.
It must fix our dam so that we can survive…We want food and water for us and our cattle to survive,” Dungeni said.
The villagers in this Gatsheni-Matopo area say the Mabigwe reservoir dried up, leaving them with no reliable source of water for their animals.
The World Food Program says it needs about $75 million to ensure food stability for Zimbabwe’s “lean season” for the next six months for dry places like Gatsheni-Matopo.
Eddie Rowe, the WFP director in Zimbabwe, told VOA that about 2.4 million people in this southern African nation need food aid because of unusually long dry spells during the rainy season.
“As we speak, we know that in almost every district, most of these households have run out of their harvests and now depend on the market and we all know the problem we are facing.
USAID’s Food For Peace program has given $22 million to the WFP to ease Zimbabwe’s food insecurity.
But their animals will need water – and more drought is predicted.