It is not strange to see dry rivers in Malawi . Every dry season, thin rivers evaporate into a sorry sight of sandy paths while big ones barely survive. Yet, the same rivers just a season later, in the depth summer are pregnant with rainy water; then they vomit the much dreaded floods.
It’s Mother Nature’s mystery. They say water is life, but in this context, when the floods come knocking down everything in their path, it’s also a matter of death too.
A recent visit to Mkwezalamba Village , Tradition Authority Nsamala in Balaka portrays a vivid picture. Most rivers that surround this village have become empty warehouses of sand and rocks.
Even at the time when the heavens’ gates are still pouring down rains, the rivers hardily have enough water. It’s scary.
Like in all African tales, the story of the natural landmarks like rivers and hills is a permanent fixture, but in Mkwezalamba village, it’s not only the folklore tellers that have gone begging for memories of its once beautiful rivers. Simply without the water, real life is getting tougher.
Esime Mandawa, (in her 50s), recalls the village adage that Mziza River never dried up even in the dry season as told to her by her ancestors. She told me, for that reason and others, the river sways them in awe and mystery too.
Importantly, this river, Esime says, has been the main source of water to this area for ages.
“Things have changed these days. If it were some years ago, you would not have made it here with a vehicle like you have done, all the rivers would have been full of water. Despite the transportation problems the water was making our life easier,” she volunteered in a brief history.
She went on to recount the domestic chores once easily enjoyed by the village in a tone that almost cherish the river as a treasure and a privilege.
“We were using the water to clean plates, bath, wash clothes and also water our gardens. But today, all the rivers including our main source of water river Mziza have dried up. We are struggling to get water, during lucky days we manage to get water after digging deep into the sand of the dried rivers,” she said before turning a somber face.
The river swept away the children future
The drying up of Mziza has left Mkwezalamba village wondering about what the future holds. For a school boy like George Imvani, 10, the drying up of Mziza River and Msuke River which is nearer this village is a mockery to his efforts to attain education too.
On a Tuesday morning, when he was supposed to be at school, George was on a bicycle with a 50 liters gallon of water he had fetched some two to three kilometers away from a borehole.
“I could not go to school today because I had to go and fetch water for my parents. They use this water to wash plates, cook food and I also bath the same water,” George drudgingly told me looking tired from the cycling.
“Instead of going to school my parents asked me to go and fetch water because Mziza River which used to be our source of water is dry. We go early in the morning around seven o’clock. We use bicycles and it takes about two hours to bring water home,” narrates George.
His story is a tale shared by hundreds of primary and secondary school students in the area.
While Chief Mkwezalamba might not be worried of water for cooking, washing plates or water to birth and go to school his main worry is how the rainy season has shortened there by dwindling crop production.
He says people in the village realize that things have changed for the worse. He observes that the rainy season has shortened and that most of the rivers in his village remain dry throughout the year.
“I remember from my childhood, the rains used to come by end of October and we would have the rains up to April. But in the past eight years or more the rains are coming in December and by January end or early February the rains disappear,” he says.
He says the rains disappear when the maize is at tussling stage which lessens their crop production.
“From the same piece of land where we could harvest enough for our families these days we have very little and we fail to fend for our families throughout the year,” he says.
These experiences are like a drop of water in a lake on how climate change effects are inflicting the poor especially from the African continent.
The response
Such effects are what attracted the intervention of Balaka Livelihood Security Programme (BLSP) BT Synod of CCAP. With assistance from Oxfam who via funding from European Commission, the group aim to empower the community in T/A Mkwezalamba with technical skills to embark on an irrigation scheme which is both helping in adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
BLSP Community Development Officer Hastings Chimwaza says they Nsamala village is one of the places where they are operating by giving advice on how people can survive in the middle of climate change crisis.
“The rains have become unpredictable and we are working together with communities on how to produce enough food for their homes in the absence of the rains,” says Chimwaza.
He says currently the Synod is running eight similar schemes in the district.
Deputy Chairperson of the scheme which is called Umodzi Irrigation Scheme, Mathews Mkwezalamba says the scheme is concentrating much on adapting to changes bestowed by climate change rather than mitigating it.
“We started in April 2010 and we have 15 members. We pay a membership fee of K100 which we use to buy seeds and other things needed on our scheme. We were given a half acre land where during the dry season we plant vegetables and other crops which mature early. But in a rainy season like this one we concentrate on maize,” he says.
Mkwezalamba further says they put much effort on crop irrigation because they want the members to benefit directly.
He says though the scheme has a tree nursery, the group believes that practicing good adaptation activities is better off.
“Planting of trees alone is not helpful for us because at the same time we need food and a source of income to meet other basic needs like sending our children to school,” Mkwezalamba adds.
Supporting Umodzi’s approach Citizens for Justice (CFJ), Friends of the Earth Malawi, Reinford Mwangonde says it is better that communities in Malawi focus on adapting climate change than putting all the effort in mitigating activities because by end of the day the whole land will be filled with trees with less land available for farming.
He reinforces this with reminders about Malawi economy which is hugely agro based with the agriculture sector covering over 60% of her economy.
He adds that even if Malawi intensifies the planting of tree as one way of offsetting carbon dioxide, only very minimal progress will be attained because rich countries which contribute more than 90% of greenhouse gases are not willing to cut on carbon dioxide emission activities.
Mwangonde explains that Africa produces little more than 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions with Malawi contributing to less than 0.2 of greenhouse gases but the rest is produced by rich countries.
“Those responsible for the climate crisis must be the ones to mitigate it and support efforts to increase resilience to climate change impacts,” he said adding that though Africa contributes very little greenhouse gases, but a UN report confirms the findings of numerous studies before it forecasting that the African continent will suffer extreme environmental upheavals as a result of rising temperatures, rising sea levels and variations in precipitation.
He feels climate justice will be achieved only when major polluters will reduce their consumption and control of the world’s resources through real solutions rather than false solutions to climate change which continue to privilege the minority of the world’s population.
“Climate change justice will be achieved when they support vulnerable people who have to adapt to impacts of climate change- a crisis which the majority of the world’s poor people living in the global south like Malawi did not create,” says Mwangonde adding that climate justice requires a global transformation away from dominant development and economic paradigm to recognize all people’s right to a dignified life within ecological limits.
With climate change injustice, it is important for each country affected to put up measures that would enable her citizens to exercise their rights in the mid of the climate change crisis.
It is clear that rich countries are not willing to reduce their greenhouse gases emissions despite a recommendation from scientists to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 90%. Only Norway showed commitment which is a sound of danger as Africa including Malawi will continue to suffer from effects of climate change.
Instead of cutting off carbon emission activities the rich countries have given a grant of $30 billion to poor countries for a period o three years starting with 2010.
It is yet to be seen if interventions from civil society organizations like CFJ will yield positive results through its climate change campaign on what it calls the “climate change justice” which is based on the polluter pays principle. But the story of the village and its once beloved river paints a vivid picture of how easily climate change effects can suffocate the future of our nation.
