By Kalata News:
LUSAKA April 17, 2024 – Zambia has announced that the country only has a paltry 5% of its estimated ‘life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian and recovery needs’ to fight the drought.
In an evening address to the nation on April 16, Zambia’s president Hakainde Hichilema said the country had a budget of $940.6 million dollars out of which the country only has $51.2 million dollars ‘is available leaving a financing gap of 22.2 billion Zambian Kwacha, equivalent to 889.4 million United States Dollars’.
President Hichilema said close to half of his 20 million population is affected by this drought and is at the verge of starvation.
He has since appealed to Zambia’s partners both local and international to come to the country’s aid and help mitigate the effects of the drought.
“As you know, Zambia has experienced extremely low rainfall this year, culminating in the worst drought the country has experienced since records began. The effects of this drought were most clearly observed in crop production, where one million hectares of planted maize has been adversely affected across eighty-four (84) of the one hundred and sixteen (116) districts in our country. Similarly, pasture availability has reduced for animals, while ground and surface water levels have also been impacted negatively.” He announced.
“Nine point eight million (9.8 million) of our people have been adversely affected by the drought and of these, 6.6 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance,” he said.
President Hichilema on February 29, 2024, declared the country’s drought as a national disaster and emergency and promised to re-align the country’s budget to meet the needs of the affected communities.
He has since met with various stakeholders such as food agribusiness and farmers, manufacturing and energy suppliers to discuss how to ensure drought does not destabilize the nation’s food and energy security.
“To respond to the adverse effects of the drought, emphasis is being placed on the provision of food assistance to the people in need, as well as interventions for early recovery and resilience building, going forward. We are placing special focus on investments in water development for agricultural, and energy production, as well as the provision of water to households, livestock and wildlife.” He announced.
President Hichilema said agricultural production would require 2.5 billion Kwacha equivalent to the funding gap of this specific activity since no resources are available for the proposed interventions. He said livestock and wildlife preservation and wellbeing will require 1.7 billion Kwacha, out of which 98 million was available, leaving a funding gap of 1.5 billion Kwacha.
