Devastating floods hit Southern Zambia during the 2007/2008 rainy season and compelled rural communities to adjust to new livelihoods. Weather experts and researchers cited global climate change as cause of the floods in Southern Zambia. Therefore, it is very likely that these kinds of disaster will occur more often in the future.

A recent report from the University of Zambia in Lusaka says, Southern Zambia will continue to experience more rainfall than ever, because of the changing weather patterns globally.

The report adds, that some of the risks, the region is likely to face, are an increment of mortality caused by thermal stress as heat waves, more floods, bushfires, droughts and cyclones that goes together with an increased transmission of vector-borne, food borne and waterborne diseases.

This prompted most people in Southern Zambia moving away from their traditional livelihoods. They are now considering relocating to higher grounds, building their houses with cement and planting their gardens slightly further from the river banks and valleys.

The majority of the population is small holder farmers, who started only now with rearranging their livelihoods. They are resorting different farming techniques, such as planting early maturing or drought resistant food crops.

Alfred Mweemba is a farmer and milk trader, who lost all his household belongings, livestock and garden in the floods. He was forced to move to the higher grounds. “I want to plant irrigated early maturing crops and put up the five animals that survived the rains on higher grounds. I need to start a new life here because the weather has become unpredictable,” says Mweemba.
“Our forefathers used to plant their crops in valleys and river banks, but what has happened is a lesson that will forever change our traditional way of farming here in Southern Province”.

Mweemba and several others that lived around Magoye in Southern Zambia have decided to set base on higher grounds.

Studies have shown that Southern Zambia, which is traditionally a drought prone region, will continue to experience extensive flooding and heavy rainfall.
The meteorological department in Zambia is therefore urging communities around the region to think about new agricultural practices to adapt their livelihood to the new weather conditions.

Water harvesting

One technique which helps people to cope with the alteration from droughts to floods is water harvesting. Mable Hachamba is a retired high school teacher who has always been involved in gardening and diary farming. Hachamba has dug a dam where she wishes to store excess water. Later, she will use this water to irrigate her garden and to look after the animals on her newly established settlement.

Some smallholder farmers are following suit and investing in water harvesting projects to prepare themselves for drier and warmer periods of summer.

She says, “We are told that the weather here will not be same as it was in the past. You can’t know what will happen next, so I am just getting ready for any eventualities. My garden and animals need water.”

In order take advantage of the logging flood water in Southern Zambia, some farmers are now digging holes and furrows around their settlements and directing them to their gardens. They are using a similar technique as the one used in large sugar and rice plantations. That allows to capture the excess water and to use it at a later moment.
Those with roofed houses are now putting collection pipes on the edges of their roofs then diverting the rain water into small garden and drinking dams for their livestock.

As part of their new water serving technique, the farmers dig dams that are about four to five metres wide and three metres deep. In these dams they put a thin plastic, which holds the water for longer periods. And to protect the water from evaporating in warm periods, the farmers cover the water dams with grass, similar to the one that is used to thatch their houses.

The Zambian government through the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment has since started conducting awareness campaigns to sensitize communities in Southern Zambia on how they can adapt to fluctuating weather patterns. Farmers are being taught how to cultivate drought resistant crops as well as how to take care of their livestock during rainy periods.

Rodger Phiri, Head of the Zambia National Association for Peasant and Small Scale Farmers, says, “We are helping them adapt by giving them techniques on crop diversification, food supplementations, prevention of diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and malaria through hygiene and provision of mosquito nets in malaria infested regions and investment in water treatment”.

Beside that, farmers learn to take care for their environment. It is always important to encourage farmers to reduce deforestation and instead to plant two trees, whenever they cut one as firewood. However, trees are of main importance to stabilize the local micro climate.

After experiencing such extensive floods, the farmers of Southern Zambia now embarked on new agricultural practice, which helps them to cope with the different environmental conditions.