More than 250 people were killed and at least 200 are still missing after a devastating cycle hit the eastern part of Zimbabwe and destroyed almost everything in its path. Cyclone Idai battered areas such as Chimanimani, Chipinge and parts of Masvingo and destroyed homes, crop fields, major bridges and communication infrastructure. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called it a state of disaster. There is no official damage assessment report but the media have deemed this the worst disaster to hit Zimbabwe since Cyclone Eline in the year 2000.
PELUM Zimbabwe members operating in Chimanimani district say farmers are still in shock, many are mourning the loss of their loved ones and livelihoods have been destroyed.
“Roads have been destroyed and people are facing food shortages like we have never seen before. This year there was drought and now even the little that was in the fields has been washed away,” says Julious Piti, Founder and ex-Director for Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training (PORET) Trust.
Solomon Mwacheza, the Programmes Manager for Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust concurs with Julious in his assessment of the situation in Chimanimani district.
“Things are not okay. Farmers lost their homes and many people are trapped in Chimanimani urban. No one is able go in and no one can leave. Sewer pipes burst during the cyclone and this is now a potential time bomb,” says Solomon.
Last year in September, Zimbabwe suffered another blow when cholera claimed the lives of more than 50 people. This too was declared a national emergency. Many parts of Chimanimani remain inaccessible and life is gloomy for many smallholder farmers in Manicaland Province.
“We are stuck in Mutare [approximately 143.2 kilometres from Chimanimani] and we are not able to go to work in Chikukwa. One of the crop fields belonging to a farmer who had attended the Seed and Food custodians’ symposium in Harare was washed away completely,” says Patience Sithole, the Programme Officer for Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust (CELUCT).
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