A MEMBER of Parliament yesterday suggested that the hunger that has ravaged most parts of the country could be averted if people harvested rainwater from their roofs and used it to water their fields.
PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
Bikita East MP Kennedy Matimba (Zanu PF) said the method could be used in dry regions as a short-term measure to survive droughts.
The MP was contributing to debate on the President’s Speech in Parliament.
“We placed gutters on a four-roomed house and trapped (rain) water which was used to water a 2,5-hactare field of maize and they harvested 50 metric tonnes of maize, which can last six months,” he said.
Such a programme, he said, was effective in mitigating the problem of hunger. Bikita East is a drought-prone area where people depend on donor food almost every year.
Rainy seasons are almost always very short and as early as November, well before crops have ripened, the rains would have stopped and both people and livestock would have started scrounging for drinking water.
Lobengula MP Samuel Sipepa Nkomo (MDC-T) said it was disturbing that Zimbabwe had been reduced to “a basket case”.
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“There is need for programmes to avert hunger. We are concerned about the acute shortage of food in parts of Masvingo, Manicaland and Matabeleland,” he said.
The country, he said, needed about 2,2 million tonnes of maize to ensure food security.
Zvishavane-Ngezi MP John Holder (Zanu PF) said there was need to increase support to small-scale miners through crafting policies that would enhance their activities. He said “mining legislation should be revised and simplified” to cater for the small-scale miners.
Robson Mavenyengwa, the MP for Zaka North (Zanu PF), said access to health institutions in rural areas was very difficult as villagers were travelling long distances to get to the nearest clinics, a situation he said was “not good for pregnant women, the elderly and the terminally ill”.
