By Bustop TV
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has urged awareness on debt issues in the context of climate change together with its impact on the economy.
The calls come a few days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa made his maiden appearance at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
The historic visit by Mnangagwa and other government officials came two decades after Zimbabwe’s state leader last visited the United Kingdom because of travel ban imposed due to economic sanctions.
The socio-economic justice coalition of civil societies cited the country’s debt dating back to the country’s 2013 economic blueprint (ZIMASSET) which was primarily encoded “extraction or removal of natural resources that are considered valuable for exportation worldwide”.
Similarly the recently enacted economic blueprint National Development Strategy 1 aims to drive the benefaction of five key minerals during its five-year period in order to enhance socio-economic development.
This has seen the need by the government to revisit some mining activities and assess their impact on the land, people, and animals.
Many mining activities in most parts of rural Zimbabwe especially by Chinese are heavily impacting rural areas where it is reported forced displacements, violation of labour laws, environment pollution is the order of the day.
In its weekly publication, Weekend Read, ZIMCODD implored the government to understand issues of debt management in light of climate changes.
“Besides its other deficiencies in public resources management such as corruption, the country’s capacity to repay some of its huge debt should also be understood within the context of climate change impacts.
It went on to give an example of cyclone Idai which left a trail of destruction costing the country more than one billion United States Dollars in trying to restore the livelihoods of affected citizens.
“In 2019 for example, the country experienced Cyclone Idai, the catastrophic tropical cyclones that affected Africa and the southern hemisphere. Cyclone Idai caused tragic loss of life and destruction of properties, infrastructure (roads, schools, clinics) in central Mozambique, Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe.
“The World Bank estimated that Zimbabwe faced about USD 622 million in damages and losses due to Cyclone Idai across its nine districts in the eastern side of the country (World Bank, 2020). To “build back better” and restore the damaged infrastructure and livelihoods, Zimbabwe requires approximately USD 1.1 billion,” it read.
Previously, other climate induced impacts such as droughts have also reeled off the country from its development trajectory. During the 1992 drought, the Zimbabwean government incurred unplanned budget of over Z$1 billion in drought relief (particularly on food imports) and as a result its public debt increased sharply from 54.9 % of GDP in 1991 to 59.3 % of GDP in 1992 according to (Lenneiye, 2000).
The growing number and impact of extreme weather events has been attributed to the extractive industries which have the negative effects on the climate if extensively done with disregard to adherence to Environment Impact Assessment Plans as has been the norm with most miners lately.
