By Tinei Tuhwe
ENVIRONMENT Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni has called for enhanced climate forecasting to mitigate devastating effects of climate change in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Speaking at the official opening of the Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF-29) in Harare recently, Nyoni urged her counterparts in the region to ensure that national meteorological and hydrological services are well-resourced, to enable monitoring of the weather and climate, as well as deliver reliable weather and climate forecasts, in order to mitigate climate impacts.
“Through this communique I would like to urge my counterparts in the region to ensure that the national meteorological and hydrological services are well resourced.
“This will enable them to monitor the weather and climate as well as to deliver reliable weather and climate forecasts.
“The effects of climate variability and change are a major concern for us as SADC Member States.
“We have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of extreme weather events, erratic rainfall patterns, and prolonged droughts,” Nyoni said.
The minister added that the Government of Zimbabwe had already started equipping the MSD with state-of-the-art weather observing equipment such as automatic weather stations and weather radars in line with the early warning for all initiative.
Climate change led to a significant increase in the food insecure population in the SADC region, from 57.1 million in 2023 to 67.7 million people in 2024, representing 17.1% of the regional population. This analysis is based on data from 10 Member States: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Nyoni emphasised the importance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing among SADC Member States to address climate variability and change.
“It is incumbent upon us to enhance our capacity in terms of coming up with more accurate and finer forecasts.
“These should include more parameters such as start of season, end of season and expected cumulative dry days or dry spells.
“Our countries will be able to respond with determination and foresight using the scientific information provided by our national meteorological and hydrological services.
In response to climate change, the SADC region has initiated development of a regional programme on climate change, which is still in the development phase.
