Zambia Proposes K42 Billion Drought Budget

By Kalata News Reporter

Lusaka – December – THE ZAMBIAN Government has this June proposed a K42 billion supplementary budget to deal with the after effects of the drought.

Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane presented before National Assembly of Zambia a K 41.9 billion supplementary budget of Government’s response to the drought.

However, there is no allocation towards the research and development sector for financing of innovative ideas towards solving the key most challenges brought about by this drought, namely national food security and energy and fuel crisis and water harvesting.

Minister Musokotwane said out of the recommended K41.9 billion in the supplementary budget, about 20 per cent of the budget (K8.3 billion) will be dedicated to provide life-saving and early recovery assistance to the millions of Zambians affected by this disaster.

Some of the highlights of the supplementary budget include the following;

Social Cash Transfer Programme:

K5.2 billion has been allocated to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services for the Social Cash Transfer Programme. This allocation to the Social Cash Transfer Programme will facilitate for a top-up of K200 to all the 1.3 million households already enrolled in the existing Social Cash Transfer Programme. This top-up of K200 will ensure that recipients under the existing Social Cash Transfer programme receive a total amount of K400 per month.

Cash for Work Programme:

The Government has proposed to implement a Cash for Work Programme for which an initial amount of K2.0 billion has been allocated. This amount is expected to be increased up to K3.8 billion in 2024 alone after financing procedures and processes are finalised with some of our cooperating partners.

School Feeding Programme:

The Government has decided to upscale the School Feeding program from Early Childhood Education to Secondary Education in about 37 affected districts. This will also ensure that our children continue attending classes and not miss school due to hunger and starvation during this period.

In this regard, K392.2 million has been allocated over and above the approved budget of K111.7 million in the 2024 budget.

Water Harvesting and Supply management sector:

K306.6 million has been allocated to the water supply management sector. The proposed allocation will help maintain and rehabilitate dams in the 84 affected districts as well as help Government drill high production boreholes as well as provide the required water treatment chemicals for some water utility companies.

Livestock And Wildlife Sector:

Under the livestock and wildlife sector, Government is proposing to spend an additional K460 million to undertake, among others, heightened livestock disease control. This is to ensure that sufficient surveillance and vaccines are provided to curb dry spell-prone livestock diseases.

Out of the recommended K41.9 billion in this supplementary budget, an amount of K14.6 billion or 34.8 percent has been dedicated to address the external debt service obligations.

This supplementary budget should have gone further to allocate resources to commercial and research and development (R&D) entities to come up with solutions towards Zambia’s current drought related problems.

Take for instance the over 12 hours of load shedding and the demand by both industry and the farming community for a steady supply of electric power, the budget should have set aside funds for companies working on finding alternative sources of energy besides the existing hydro and thermal power plants. Research on nuclear power, geothermal and wind power needs funding for them to be expeditiously undertaken in order to provide alternatives.

Funds could have also been set aside for water harvesting projects such as dams and digging of industrial boreholes and tanks in key farming and industrial areas, piping for irrigation and industrial use as well as artificial rain making equipment.

On national food security, funds should have been set up in introducing genetically modified organisms (GMO) crops side by side hybrid crops to ensure that the parts of the country heavily hit by the drought have a variety of seeds to grow in order to mitigate the effects of the drought.

Another area that needed funding was in the area of cash crops such as growing of industrial hemp, medicinal cannabis and expansion of tobacco fields among others.

The drought, like President Hakainde Hichilema had announced, should present Zambia with an opportunity to do what the country has been fearing to do in these areas