Climate change migration in Zimbabwe

A community meeting at a remote business centre south-east of the city of Mutare in September this year was highly charged. Villagers from some parts of Mpudzi Resettlement Scheme in Mutare district were trying to find solutions to the emotive issue of the increasing number of people migrating into their area from dry areas.

And the villagers were accusing their local village-head for allegedly resettling new people on pastures, river sources and stream banks without following proper procedures and government approval.

Mpudzi Resettlement forms part of the Eastern Highlands which stretches from Nyanga in the north and Chipinge in the south. The Highlands have a cooler and wetter climate than other parts of Zimbabwe with higher rainfall, low cloud and heavy mists and dew as moisture moves inland from the Indian Ocean. Many streams and rivers originate in these mountains, which form the watershed between the Zambezi and the Save River systems. As climate is changing, many people from lower hotter areas are now migrating to higher areas which are still receiving higher rainfall to sustain rain-fed agriculture. The result has been conflict as the new settlers are taking over pastures with some settling on river sources like the Nyamakari and Nyachowa rivers in the Burma Valley area.

Even with the conflict, the new settlers have vowed to stay as they argue that they have nowhere to go. Many lower areas in Manicaland like Marange and Buhera have been receiving erratic rainfall since 1992 devastating drought. And crop yields have been poor, farmers have lost their livestock and water sources have dried up, forcing people to migrate in search of greener pastures. And the eastern highlands have become the melting pot for the environmental refugees. While developments in the eastern highlands seem remote and only confined to the remote parts of the country, the real truth is that climate change induced migration is one of the biggest challenges facing not only Zimbabwe but the whole continent in the next decade.

Though some of the affected people in Zimbabwe have moved across borders to countries like South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia among others, some have moved internally looking for areas which still receive better rainfall.

"I relocated from Buhera and this area receives better rainfall and the pastures are good for our livestock. We can't die while the grass is greener here. Of course we have had problems with people who have been living here before but we have no choice it is a matter of life or death," revealed Francis Kuamba who is now living in the Himalaya area along the border with Mozambique.

 

Although there are various other reasons which could force people to migrate, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said it was now increasingly recognizing that environmental degradation and climate change were among major drivers in both forced and voluntary migration.

Climate change threatens to cause one of the biggest refugee crises of all time, though various figures have been thrown around, climate change experts have warned that up to 200 million people would be forced to abandon their homes over the course of the century the world over.

Despite these shocking revelations, many African governments-Zimbabwe included- are not taking climate change migration seriously.

In an interview with this reporter recently, a renowned USA climate change activist and author, Ross Gelbspan warned that: "…. as we experience more crop failures, water shortages, and uncontrolled migrations by people whose lands become less able to support them, that governments will become more totalitarian in their efforts to keep order in the face chaos. So it's really the political and economic aspects that I've been thinking about."

While, the accepted line of argument has been that most of the Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa are political and economic refugees, the truth however is that some are climate change induced refugees. Crops are failing, livestock are dying and clean water is becoming scarce, forcing many people to abandon their traditional homes.

A Zimbabwean climate change journalist based in South Africa, Fidelis Zvomuya, weighed in adding that farmers in Zimbabwe were no longer employing as many workers as before due to persistent droughts resulting in people crossing borders to look for employment in neighbouring countries.  And he added: "The lack of food in areas like Matabeleland provinces in Zimbabwe where droughts are now an annual event is forcing people to cross to South Africa for jobs".

But migration as a result of climate change is not isolated to the Southern parts of Africa but the whole continent. The Horn of Africa and Sahel regions have experienced among the worst climate change induced famines in decades, forcing people to seek refuge in other countries. Millions of people have been affected and with the respective governments and humanitarian organizations having been caught unawares. They are not prepared for such devastating famines and the massive movements of people.

African countries were not ready also for the influx of people migrating as a result of the famine.  Although migration can be a positive and useful way to adapt to climate change, there are many situations in which it is not a viable option.

Poverty, failing ecosystems, vulnerability to natural hazards and gradual climate-driven environmental changes have in the past been linked to migration. Experts say climate change is expected to significantly affect migration in three distinct ways. First, the effects of warming and drying in some regions will reduce agricultural potential and undermine the provision of clean water and availability of fertile soil. Second, the increase in extreme weather events such as heavy rains and resulting flash or river floods in tropical regions will affect even more people and generate mass displacement. And sea-level rise will permanently destroy extensive and highly productive low-lying coastal areas that are home to millions of people who will have to relocate permanently.

While the consequences of mass migration are not de facto negative, its main impacts overwhelmingly are. These include escalating humanitarian crises, rapid urbanization and associated slum growth, and stalled development.

But are African countries, poor as they, prepared for this impending disaster? Most countries are ill prepared for the mass movement of people as a result of climate change, both internally and across national borders. The mass movements have resulted in conflicts among people as they fight over resources. Conflicts as a result of climate change migration have been evident in some parts of Zimbabwe where people are moving in large numbers to regions which are still receiving good rainfall. And the xenophobic attacks in South Africa in the recent years are just a dress rehearsal of impending fights over resources.

An expert on climate change migration Mukundi Mutasa said discussing migration is particularly important to southern Africa, a region that has suffered a number of climate-induced disasters in recent history, notably the flooding in the Zambezi Valley in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and in the Namibia's Caprivi region, and the droughts across the breadth of the region.