April 30, 2002
President Robert Mugabe has declared a state of disaster throughout Zimbabwe in the face of a government report that estimates that about 7.8 million people - over five million of them children - will need humanitarian help for the next 18 months.
A government gazette published last week said: "As a result of the prevalent drought, a state of disaster exists in all communal lands and resettlement and urban areas in Zimbabwe with effect from April 30 2002." The briefly worded notice issued under the Civil Protection Act comes amid concerns that crops are failing and predictions that wheat and grain stocks will run out in August. The declaration lasts for three months and can be extended.
Judith Lewis, World Food Programme regional director in East and Southern Africa, last week warned that unless food began arriving within the next four months, there would be "an all-out disaster" in Southern Africa. WFP is already feeding over 500,000 Zimbabweans and has included Zimbabwe in its list of the six most vulnerable countries in Southern Africa along with Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland. Malawi has already declared a disaster and Lesotho, a famine.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis, political uncertainty, disruptions to commercial farming through a land resettlement programme and HIV/AIDS have been cited as factors compounding the problems brought by the drought. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) a report compiled for Zimbabwe's Interministerial Committee of Ministers on Drought and Social Protection, indicates that the situation is "grim and getting worse".
The estimate of 7.8 million affected people is made up of 5.9 million rural people (74 percent of the rural population) who are affected by the drought and 1.9 million urban poor (51 percent of the urban population) heavily affected by the harsh economic situation. More than two thirds (69 percent) of the 7.8 million are children up to the age of 14. Of those children, 1,7 million are under five years old and 3,6 million are between the ages of 5 and 14.
The Zimbabwe government has asked UNICEF to support a rapid nutrition status assessment and re-introduce the Child Supplementary Feeding Programme (CSFP) that responded successfully to the 1991/92 drought. The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) has requested an inter-agency mission to be led by the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs to update the December Humanitarian Assistance and Recovery Programe (HARP).
In preparation, the Zimbabwe UNCT has initiated a series of assessments on the humanitarian situation and the HARP to show the level of response needed. UNICEF have already started the food security and nutrition, and water and sanitation assessments.
The assessments from the other agencies, including WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, will be completed by mid-May. The Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) will also assess the humanitarian needs of farmworkers. However, UNICEF said: "While food is important, non-food response in health, nutrition, water and sanitation and social protecton and education are crucial in responding to this emergency."
Reacting to Mugabe's declaration, Chris McIvor, Programme Director for Save the Childen said: "It is completely appropriate for the president to declare a disaster. If the world doesn't want to see starving children on their television screens later this year we need to start moving now. People need to realise that they are staring a disaster right in the face."
"We have done nutritional surveys and find that many families have exhausted all their coping strategies. They have sold their livestock, their household assets, used up employment options and their money. They are now down to the bare minimum and if a major intervention doesn't take place, there will be a notable increase in malnutrition," he told IRIN.
"In Binga, (in the north west) where we are feeding about 130,000 children, production has dropped 80 percent compared to normal harvests. The current harvest will last families about two to three months, after that people only have their livestock and other assistance available.
"The declaration will help mobilise donors. Food is going to have to be imported and this is five or six times more expensive. The government will need millions in foreign currency. Many surrounding countries are also battling with shortages and don't have much to spare for Zimbabwe so emergency supplies have to be sourced from as far afield as Brazil," McIvor said.
In March the WFP launched an appeal for US $69 million for its emergency programme but the donor response was slow. On the situation in the cities, Pedro Figueiredo, WFP regional logistics officer said: "In the shops by 10 am there is no food left."
He said a vessel is currently on the high seas from the United States bringing 33,000 mt of maize to Beira in Mozambique. Some of this would go to Zimbabwe and the rest would be shared throughout the region. A report in The Herald newspaper said the government is finalising a ZD $95 billion programme to fund maize imports, food aid, child supplementary schemes and winter crop inputs.
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