News / National
Finance ministry unveils $300 000 for cloud seeding
16 Mar 2016 at 05:45hrs | Views
ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND CLIMATE Minister Oppah Muchinguri has said Finance and Economic Development ministry this year availed $300 000 for cloud seeding as drought had seemed to be prevailing.
She said the Government of Zimbabwe has been providing funding for the national cloud seeding programme. This is one of its yearly priority areas of focus and carried out by the Meteorological Services Department.
She said since independence, the national cloud seeding programme has been carried out every year except for 4 years due to various reasons.
"I also wish to advise Hon. Members that before the cloud seeding programme became operational, extensive research and experimentation was done for 5 years. After these 5 years of experimentation, the scientist determined that cloud seeding for the purposes of increasing precipitation enhanced the rainfall amounts by at least 25%," Muchinguri said.
"On average, seeded clouds start precipitating 15 minutes after seeding. This is significant and in line with the findings of other experiments in many countries of the World. For your information, a minimum of 50 countries worldwide are presently conducting cloud seeding for various purposes. I understand that, due to increasing impacts of climate change, the number of countries intending to embark on cloud seeding is increasing, including some of those in SADC, Zimbabwe has been approached in this regard and is already assisting," she said.
"The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development availed $300 000 on 10 January 2016 for the purposes of cloud seeding. On 11 January (the next day) cloud seeding operations commenced. This year we hired and deployed 2 aircrafts for the exercise, in order to reduce time for flying to the target areas as well as, maximizing on capturing as many rain-pregnant clouds as possible."
She said one craft is based in Harare and should cover all the Mashonaland provinces, Manicaland as well as parts of Midlands.
"The second aircraft is based in Bulawayo to cover the Matabeleland provinces, Masvingo as well as parts of Midlands. As such the exercise has been countrywide," Muchinguri. "As of Monday, 29 February 2016, U$86 000 is the balance of the funds remaining. This amounts to approximately 15 days of cloud seeding."
She said the Government of Zimbabwe has been providing funding for the national cloud seeding programme. This is one of its yearly priority areas of focus and carried out by the Meteorological Services Department.
She said since independence, the national cloud seeding programme has been carried out every year except for 4 years due to various reasons.
"On average, seeded clouds start precipitating 15 minutes after seeding. This is significant and in line with the findings of other experiments in many countries of the World. For your information, a minimum of 50 countries worldwide are presently conducting cloud seeding for various purposes. I understand that, due to increasing impacts of climate change, the number of countries intending to embark on cloud seeding is increasing, including some of those in SADC, Zimbabwe has been approached in this regard and is already assisting," she said.
"The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development availed $300 000 on 10 January 2016 for the purposes of cloud seeding. On 11 January (the next day) cloud seeding operations commenced. This year we hired and deployed 2 aircrafts for the exercise, in order to reduce time for flying to the target areas as well as, maximizing on capturing as many rain-pregnant clouds as possible."
She said one craft is based in Harare and should cover all the Mashonaland provinces, Manicaland as well as parts of Midlands.
"The second aircraft is based in Bulawayo to cover the Matabeleland provinces, Masvingo as well as parts of Midlands. As such the exercise has been countrywide," Muchinguri. "As of Monday, 29 February 2016, U$86 000 is the balance of the funds remaining. This amounts to approximately 15 days of cloud seeding."
Source - Byo24News
