The Stream, September 25, 2024: With Harvests Decimated by Drought, Zimbabwe and Namibia Will Turn to Elephant Meat

An elephant wanders along the Runde River Valley in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe, in March 2023. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user Boundless Southern Africa

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

At one school in Lagos, Nigeria, parents tight on money can opt to pay tuition with plastic waste, a common blight on the capital’s waterways.
As Vietnam continues to recover in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, another deluge has brought rains and deadly flooding to the country’s central provinces.
Three hydroelectric dams have been temporarily shut down as water flows in Ecuador sink to 60-year lows.
Following Zimbabwe’s worst drought in four decades, which wrought havoc on crops, the government is planning a mass culling of elephants to feed its people.

In Bolivia, a highland lake on the brink of extinction is being cleaned and saved by a group of Indigenous women.

“Indigenous people know that if a lake dies, it’s as if the soul of a people dies.” — Tatiana Blanco, a member of the Uru Uru Team, a group of about 50 Indigenous people working to clean up Lake Uru Uru.

Years ago, Bolivia’s Lake Uru Uru once supported great animal biodiversity and the lifeways of thousands of people in the country’s arid west, some 12,000 feet above sea level. But a legacy of mining and pollution has debilitated the highland habitat. Plastic waste, putrid odors, and sludge are today a widespread sight, the Guardian reports.

The growth of the nearby city Oruro, coupled with drought and erratic rainfall, have also contributed to the loss of the lake’s shoreline. With other lakes in the area drying completely in recent years, some residents worry Uru Uru will experience a similar fate.

Formed in 2019 by a group of young Indigenous women, the Uru Uru team continues to nurse the lake back to health primarily through their planting of totora — reeds which have long been used “to build houses, boats, and even floating islands” — to absorb the heavy metals contaminating the lake water. Having planted roughly 3,000 totora so far, recent laboratory tests show that areas with the plant have seen their pollution reduced by about 30 percent.

The team’s efforts for education and outreach have also included the writing of a comic book, volunteering at schools, and working alongside international organizations — including the United Nations, which last year awarded the group the Equator prize.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

Environmental Groups Face Off With EPA to Control Manure Pollution — Ninth Circuit Appellate Court Hears Arguments to Compel Federal Action
Salt Water Again Moves Upstream in Weakened Mississippi River, Endangering Drinking Water — Army Corps builds a temporary barrier to block salt water encroaching on the nation’s largest river.

The Lead

Nearly 70 million people across southern Africa have had their food security affected in the last year by El Niño-induced drought, which decimated the region’s crops. And in Zimbabwe, where it has been 40 years since such a devastating drought, roughly 7.6 million people are expected to face food shortages during the country’s next lean season, the Guardian reports. The troublesome period will be next January to April.

As a result of the drought, officials have decided to cull 200 elephants and distribute the meat to needy communities. It is the country’s first cull since 1988, and “follows neighboring Namibia’s decision last month to cull 83 elephants and distribute meat to people affected by the drought.” Namibia also decided to cull wildlife above their current carrying capacity, including “30 hippos, 60 buffalos, 50 impalas, 300 zebras and 100 elands,” AP reports.

The elephants chosen for the cull will be taken from areas where deadly human-elephant conflicts — over scarce resources including food and water — have escalated in recent months. Park and wildlife officials say that the decision will also support efforts to decongest the country’s parks, which are 29,000 elephants over capacity.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

100

Kilograms of plastic waste it costs to send each child to the Morit International School in Lagos, whose new tuition model doubles as a means to clean the city’s waters, Al Jazeera reports. Whereas money is scarce for many families — about 63 percent of Nigeria’s population lives in “multidimensional poverty” — plastic pollution in the city’s water bodies is not. As a result, the school accepts old bottles as payment instead, which is later distributed to recycling companies. Currently, enrollment is 158 students — though the future of the school is in jeopardy as the amount of plastic collected has become an overwhelming, and expensive, logistical challenge.

Hydroelectric dams — Mazar, Molina, and Sopladora — on Ecuador’s Paute River that have been temporarily shut down due to the country’s lowest water levels in 60 years, Reuters reports. The dry season has started two months early, and nationwide power cuts will span 12 hours each day, government officials announced. So far, emergency measures have already helped recover some volume in Mazar dam.

On the Radar

Yet another strong storm has struck southeast Asia, this time touching down in central Vietnam, where at least three people have died and 11,000 more have been evacuated amidst a deluge of rains, winds, and flooding, DW reports. Since Saturday, 320 homes, 40 school buildings, and 6,300 hectares of farmland have been destroyed.

The event is yet another tragedy for a country still recovering from a major storm. Less than two weeks ago, Typhoon Yagi killed 300 people in Vietnam and incurred an estimated $1.6 billion in damages. Some areas near Hanoi are still underwater from Yagi’s influence.

More Water News

Poland Flooding: In the aftermath of its worst flooding in two decades, Poland will be mobilizing $6 billion for recovery and adaptation efforts, including the potential construction of dams, floodwalls, and reservoirs, Reuters reports.

Joshua Trees: Higher temperatures, wildfire, and less rainfall are threatening the health of Joshua Trees in California — “nearly 100 percent of the trees could be lost in the coming decades” — as officials race to seek solutions, Yale Environment 360 reports.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.