Zimbabwe Suffers Severe Drought And Is In Need Of $1.5 Billion Aid

Zimbabwe suffers a massive disaster in the form of drought which has hit immensely on the entire country. The Vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa has appealed for $1.5bn aid from the local businesses and charities to save more than a quarter of his population from extreme water scarcity.

The massive downfall in the adequate amount of rain in the country led to the severe condition of drought which directly affected the basic amenities of the people."There is a threat to human and animal life as safe water, irrigation water and drinking water sources for animals are increasingly drying up," said the Vice President, noted The Guardian.

President Robert Mugabe declared Zimbabwe as "a state of disaster" owing to the immense drought conditions in major parts of the country, the Vice President's plea for funds came after a week of his announcements. Livelihood and Agriculture are the two major factors of concern as far as the country's present situation is concerned.

Therefore, most of the funds will be utilized to import the foodstuffs for the country and also to repair the irrigation equipment across the country so that food production could increase from a minimal level to marginal level."About 1.5 million metric tonnes of staple maize will be required to feed people from February to December, said Mnangagwa", reported Aljazeera.

This kind of disaster or severe situation of water scarcity is termed as EL NINO. As claimed by UN, this kind of El Nino has brought drier conditions in most of the southern parts of the Africa while the eastern part has been hit by wet conditions.

The World Food programme, UN's food assistance branch declared last month that around 14 million population in Southern Africa are facing water and food scarcity due to the poor harvests in 2015, caused by the latest El Nino.

As per the emergency response manager's report, rain was expected to fall from September to October but that didn't happen as a result of which very few population were able to grow food resulting in the crisis of food and water, as stated in Dispute Press.

The relief work has been very proactive in the country yet, in their point of view, the country's situation is not going to see any improvements in the upcoming days. Formerly known as the BREADBASKET, the country has suffered a perennial shortage of food and water in the recent years which led to its dependencies on the neighboring countries.