Met Services should provide solutions

Mmegi Editor | Tuesday February 9, 2016 12:18

Thousands of livestock have died due to water shortage and recurring heat waves. There is no grazing land for them and farmers are forced to drive their cattle into the city to feed them on the remaining green patches in gardens belonging to private homesteads or institutions. The desperate farmers drive their cattle into backyards, roadsides, and any open space where there is greenery.

The Department Meteorological Services (DMS) has painted a gloomy picture for the southern part of the country, stating that it is going to receive very low rainfall in the remaining half of the rainy season.

Perhaps the department should not only be an announcer of bad news, and instead should offer solutions. We believe that DMS staff are more skilled in weather patterns and have interacted with highly-skilled professionals in their field at international conferences etc. It is also our conviction that during those interactions the staff have come across such topics as cloud seeding, a process used to enhance clouds to produce rain. We ought to appreciate that mankind has survived many challenges posed by natural disasters, and has also achieved many milestones such as flying, going to the moon, and making communication easy and faster.

Countries like Japan have adopted technologies to build structures that can withstand constant earthquakes that hit the country on a weekly basis. The same can be said about countries that face the wrath of tropical storms such as typhoons and hurricanes, and they managed to limit the damage. All this was achieved through research.  It is high time the SADC region establishes research centres to find a solution to the constant droughts that hit this area impacting on food security. The DMS should also start researching innovative ways to fight droughts instead of relying on nature to voluntarily give us rain. One such adventure could be cloud seeding. This process has been tried in other countries and proven to be reliable.

Of course the argument may be that the department is not mandated to do research on this area. We urge lawmakers to review the Act that established the DMS to give it powers to do research and make recommendations on how best to face the ever-changing weather patterns. We can start by taking the first step. There are many partners who will be prepared to assist us if we first try it ourselves. We have no choice but to be self-reliant and try new innovations during these hard times.

Today’s thought

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” 

-John Cage