The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced Resilient Waters, a five-year, $32.4 million project to address severe water challenges facing the Limpopo River Basin and Okavango River Basin communities.
Resilient Waters will increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation services for nearly 21 million people spanning South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and Namibia.
This project will also improve management of transboundary natural resources and strengthen ecological infrastructure needed to maintain healthy water systems.
USAID Zimbabwe Mission Director Stephanie Funk stated: “By conserving one of Zimbabwe’s most important natural resources, USAID’s Resilient Waters project will protect health and livelihoods and make communities more resilient in the face of climate change.” In Zimbabwe, the Limpopo River and its tributaries carry water to more than 800,000 people who depend on its consistent supply for their health and livelihoods.
The river runs through a semi-arid region that is particularly vulnerable to climatic events, including the devastating 2015-2017 El Niño-induced drought.
Resilient Waters will work with local communities to improve water management and increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation services along the Limpopo River Basin and within its catchment areas such as Matobo Hills.
Resilient Waters follows the U.S. Government’s Global Water Strategy, which supports efforts to create a water-secure world where communities can be resilient, retain this essential resource, and foster healthy, prosperous lives Edited by Daniëlle Kruger Sponsored Links .
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People living with HIV in Mudzi, Mashonaland East provice, say they are struggling with serious food shortages that have made it difficult to take their daily anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs, leaving many at risk of defaulting.
The province experienced a severe drought this season, resulting in crops wilting and villagers’ livestock succumbing to the inclement weather conditions.
People living with HIV need at least three meals a day, but the crop failure has left locals without much-needed nutritious foods, posing an additional challenge to their already fragile health.
Mazviita Moyo, a member of the Community ART Refill Group (CARG), said the situation was dire and appealed for urgent assistance.
CARG brings together people willing to disclose their HIV status to each other in groups of 4-10 people with support services provided by nurses and counsellors.
It’s even worse when you are known to be living with HIV as some neighbours shut their doors on you," said Moyo.
Those that have tried collapsed because of hunger."
Another villager, Marvis Katsande, said gone are the days when local churches used to give them food hand-outs.
"They just stopped, and we don’t even know why; and as far as adherence to the ARV therapy is concerned, we can’t as we spend most of our time begging for food," said Katsande.
"Without nutritious food to boost our blood cells we no longer safe from other diseases and opportunistic infections that take advantage of our condition."

"These leaves are used to treat stomachaches," Nzarayebani said with a smile.
"You either boil the leaves, then drink the water, or you can chew the leaves raw and swallow the juice.
These leaves are good for treating any kind of stomach upset."
But such medicinal plants are growing rarer in Zimbabwe these days.
But one of the most serious problems appears to be the country’s lengthening droughts, associated with climate change.
But those plants are disappearing.
He said he still held out hope that some would return if rains remained good.
"The plants are disappearing, both fruit and herbal medicines, but we cannot do anything.
Lawrence Nyagwande, a plant expert with Environment Africa, an environmental organization based in Zimbabwe, said there was little doubt that droughts linked to strengthening climate change were a big contributor to the loss of Zimbabwe’s medicinal plants.
"If some plants are disturbed by droughts they will not regenerate even when the good rains come."

Zimbabwe: Trust Mobilize Communities On Wetlands Protection.
In a bid to increase awareness on the need to preserve wetlands, the Harare Wetland Trust has started a campaign aimed at mobilizing communities to be actively involved in the preservation of wetlands in Harare.
Residents from various suburbs around Harare are set to be part of Local Environment Action Plans (LEAPs) which are local plans that local authorities develop for the management of the environment within areas under their jurisdiction.
The City of Harare has given its support to this initiative.
Section 95 of the Environmental Management Act mandates local authorities to develop the action plans on environmental management.
Speaking during training programmes held in Rugare and Dzivarasekwa high density suburbs on Tuesday, Hardlife Mudzingwa, who is a Programmes Officer for the wetlands preservation project emphasized the need to preserve wetlands as they are important sources of water.
"Residents need to be actively involved in the preservation of wetlands as they are important sources of water.
"The involvement of communities that benefit from the wetlands is thus very critical.
Wetlands are among the major sources of water for Harare.
Ramsar sites in Zimbabwe include the Monavale Vlei, Cleveland Dam, Mana Pools, Lake Chivero, Driefontein Grasslands, Chinhoyi Caves and the Victoria Falls National Park.

In Zimbabwe, benefits of forgotten farming method realized during drought.
Better yet, the land is producing a crop even as southern Africa’s droughts grow stronger and more frequent, a problem linked to climate change.
That’s because Mr. Chiweshe is no longer plowing a portion of his farm, but instead planting his seeds directly into the intact soil, a water-conserving technique called “no-till” farming.
Besides planting seeds directly into the soil, no-till farming involves allowing the stalks and leaves left from earlier harvests to remain on the ground, to help hold moisture and eventually add nutrients to the soil, building soil fertility over time.
In some areas where soils are sandy, farmers practicing no-till farming saw yields no higher than those of farmers who plowed their land.
Before taking up no-till farming, he said he harvested just one tonne of maize from his 3-hectare plot last year, during the drought.
This year he expects twice that from just one-sixth of his land.
In Malawi, no-till farmers find they need to spend fewer days each year planting and weeding their fields – though they may need to buy and use herbicides to get rid of weeds without tilling the land, Thierfelder said.
Some farmers say eliminating tilling also has allowed them to plant more crops side-by-side in the same field.
Under a 2011 government plan to promote the practice, each of the country’s 4,300 farm extension officers was expected to train at least 75 farmers a year, said Phillimon Ngirazi, an extension officer from Chavakadzi in Shamva District, about 75 miles northwest of Harare.

Faced with more drought, Zimbabwe’s farmers hang up their plows.
MUREHWA, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Preparing his three-hectare plot of land for planting each year used to take Musafare Chiweshe – or the laborers he hired – two weeks.
Better yet, the land is producing a crop even as southern Africa’s droughts grow stronger and more frequent, a problem linked to climate change.
No-till farming is hardly new.
Besides planting seeds directly into the soil, no-till farming involves allowing the stalks and leaves left from earlier harvests to remain on the ground, to help hold moisture and eventually add nutrients to the soil, building soil fertility over time.
In some areas where soils are sandy, farmers practicing no-till farming saw yields no higher than those of farmers who plowed their land.
Before taking up no-till farming, he said he harvested just one ton of maize from his 3-hectare plot last year, during the drought.
This year he expects twice that from just one-sixth of his land.
In Malawi, no-till farmers find they need to spend fewer days each year planting and weeding their fields – though they may need to buy and use herbicides to get rid of weeds without tilling the land, Thierfelder said.
Under a 2011 government plan to promote the practice, each of the country’s 4,300 farm extension officers was expected to train at least 75 farmers a year, said Phillimon Ngirazi, an extension officer from Chavakadzi in Shamva District, 120 km northwest of Harare.

Mugabe’s Ocean Conference Explained.
The Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri says despite being a landlocked country, Zimbabwe takes the implementation of SDG 14 seriously and is also committed to good land use and agricultural practices to prevent water pollution.
Minister Muchinguri Kashiri said this during a presentation during a Partnership Dialogue on Fisheries at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York today.
Minister Muchinguri told the gathering of partnership organisations, governments, private sector and non-governmental organisations that Zimbabwe has extensive inland water resources with over 10 000 medium to large dams where small scale fisheries operate with permits and in the process contribute significantly to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 and 3 which focus on ensuring food security and improving nutrition and healthy lives of the Zimbabwean people.
She explained that various measures that Zimbabwe has put in place to ensure sustainable use and management of fisheries through collaboration of law enforcement agents and the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
Muchinguri Kashiri also spoke about the regional partnerships such The Zambezi River Authority between Zimbabwe and Zambia, as well as bilateral partnerships with Mozambique and South Africa where the two sides jointly manage fish stocks in shared waters, a move that has reduced overfishing.
“Zimbabwe’s conservation management framework also involves imposing partial fishing moratorium to enhance breeding and replenishment of fish stocks.
Zimbabwe also confiscates illegal fishing rigs and cancels licences and imposes heavy penalties to those who are involved,” she said.
Minister Muchinguri Kashiri also announced that Zimbabwe has launched Command Fishing Programme largely driven by rural communities especially women and youths at a small scale level, and appealed for technical cooperation in technology transfer, and fighting pollution.
“We need financial resources and monitoring capacity to ensure there is no misuse of fertilisers and pesticides which if not properly applied can pollute waters which end up in the seas.

Zimbabwe Helps Drought-stricken Farmers Grow More Maize.
"I prefer [to sell] tobacco because when we compare prices, maize [corn] prices are lower than tobacco’s," Tarutsvira said.
"But if … tobacco gives you three-four times over what maize is giving you, go for that which gives you money.
Zacharia points out Zimbabwe could use the profit from tobacco crops to import maize that is more affordable.
"Even as a nation, we could put high-value crops in our fields, make the money that you require, import the grain.
It [is] much, much cheaper than the current $390 that we buy it locally," he said.
The El-Nino-induced drought in 2015 and 2016 left Zimbabwe with serious food shortages.
In return, the farmers will give the government five tons of maize per hectare at harvest time.
So far, the rains have been good this year, and Zimbabwe’s minister of agriculture, Joseph Made, said that, thanks to the initiative, the country is on track to harvest enough maize for local consumption — as much as two million tons.
Next month, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society will gather to figure out other incentives for farmers to plant maize crops in the hopes of easing the country’s perennial food shortages.

After drought, Zimbabwe seeks foreign help for flood victims.
Zimbabwe has appealed for international help for victims of floods that have left 246 people dead and displaced hundreds since December when torrential rains started pounding a country emerging from severe drought.
An El Nino-induced drought last year scorched crops in the southern African country, leaving more than 4 million in need of food aid, but Zimbabweans are now having to contend with floods after receiving above-normal rains.
Minister for local government Saviour Kasukuwere said floods had swept through villages in the southern and southwestern parts of Zimbabwe, destroying roads, crops and livestock and forcing people into temporary government shelter.
Kasukuwere said nearly 2,000 people were homeless, 74 schools were damaged and 70 dams had burst.
President Robert Mugabe’s cash-strapped government has struggled to manage the inundation, whose effects were most severe in the areas hit hardest by last year’s drought.
Urban areas have not been spared, with many roads badly damaged.
"I am therefore appealing to the development partners, private sector and general public, inclusive of those in the diaspora, to rally with the government to support the emergency relieve programs," Kasukuwere said in a statement.
The government is seeking tents, drugs and food for those displaced by the floods, he added.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley)

From El Nino Drought to Floods, Zimbabwe’s Double Trouble.
Africa, Aid, Climate Change, Combating Desertification and Drought, Development & Aid, Environment, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Headlines, Health, Humanitarian Emergencies, Poverty & SDGs, Water & Sanitation HARARE, Mar 3 2017 (IPS) – Dairai Churu, 53, sits with his chin cupped in his palms next to mounds of rubble from his destroyed makeshift home in the Caledonia informal settlement approximately 30 kilometers east of Harare, thanks to the floods that have inundated Zimbabwe since the end of last year.
From 2015 to mid-2016, the El Nino-induced drought also hit him hard, rendering his entire family hungry.
All my crops in 2015 were wiped out by the El Nino heat and this year came the floods, which also suffocated all my maize and it means another drought for me and my family,” Churu told IPS.
I don’t know what else to say,” Churu said.
With drought amidst the floods across many parts of this Southern African nation, the Poverty Reduction Forum Trust (PRFT) has been on record in the media here saying most Zimbabwean urban residents are relying on urban agriculture for sustenance owing to poverty.
This year’s floods, which are a direct effect of the El Nino weather, are the worst in 35 years and are now even worsening and bearing impacts on farming, health and livelihoods in developing countries like Zimbabwe,” Eldred Nhemachema, a meteorological expert based in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, told IPS.
Consequently, this Southern African nation this year declared a national emergency, as harvests here face devastation from the floods resulting in soaring food prices countrywide, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Based on this year’s February update from the country’s Department of Civil Protection, at least 117 people died since the beginning of the rainy season in October last year.
And for many Zimbabweans like Churu, who were earlier hit by the El Nino-induced drought, it is now double trouble.