Late into Zambia’s long, dry season, the Victoria Falls are not at their most spectacular. Undeterred, bus loads of tourists still stop here daily to view the torrent. Most are unaware that a scarcity of water in the surrounding area has driven many rural communities to the brink of starvation.
Poor rains early in the year saw the total failure of most crops in southern Zambia. As well as decimating the livelihoods of the area’s predominantly subsistence farmers, the drought has resulted in a severe shortage of maize, the country’s staple food. Maize prices have since escalated to way beyond the means of most Zambians, the majority of whom live on less than a dollar a day.
In the village of Koma, in the nearby district of Kazungula, families have long since consumed any surpluses remaining from last year’s harvest. Even the seeds that would normally be set aside to ensure next year’s harvest have been eaten. Wild fruits that would usually supplement the villagers’ diet are now their main food source.
“There’s serious hunger here,” said Koma resident, Lackson Siamukapi. “We’re competing with monkeys and baboons for the fruit and by the end of November these fruits will be finished.”
Desperate to fill their stomachs, children sometimes eat the indigestible seeds of the fruits. Diarrhoea is common and malnutrition is increasingly a fact of life. But the children of Koma are luckier than many. Through a World Food Programme-sponsored school feeding scheme, they at least receive a daily portion of nutrient-enriched porridge.
A few kilometres away in Chazanga village, there has so far been no outside assistance and villagers are increasingly fearful for their future. The surrounding trees have been stripped of fruit and villagers must now walk long distances to forage. They too have consumed the maize seeds that should have been planted ahead of this month’s expected rains.
“Selling our livestock was our main hope of raising money for seeds but now most have died from disease,” said village headman, Rodwell Sidiwa.
Government allocations of seed and subsidised fertiliser for Kazungula have been cut by more than half since last year, leaving district agriculture and cooperatives official Katupa Chongo with the task of dividing just 150 packs of fertiliser between 3 000 farmers in the area. Pleas for additional rations, he says, have fallen on deaf ears.
“The government gave out a certain amount of money that’s been exhausted,” Chongo told Irin. “The government prefers to give fertiliser to districts that aren’t drought prone like Kazungula. The poor will remain poor.”
To compensate for the shortfall, international NGO Care, along with the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, plans to deliver seed packets to some of the more vulnerable households this month.
But even the combination of seeds and rain may not be enough to prevent the cycle of hunger from repeating itself next year. A recent outbreak of disease has wiped out most of the cattle needed to plough the fields and hand cultivation will mean a smaller than normal harvest. Disease has also killed most of the pigs and chickens that had not already been sold to raise money for food.