Veld fires ravage 208 600 hectares

Mashonaland West province has witnessed a steep 16 percent increase in the number of recorded veld fires as at September 7 this year compared to the same period last year.

According to EMA provincial education and publicity officer Mr Munyaradzi Nhariswa, the cumulative area burnt since the beginning of the fire season up to September 7 this year was 208 670,84 hectares, a 16,04 percent increase compared to 179 825,83 hectares during the same period last year. Mr Nhariswa said the districts that were mostly affected by these veld fires are Hurungwe, Zvimba and Makonde respectively.

“Hurungwe District is the worst affected with 65 434,65ha of burnt area resulting in a sharp increase of 36,1 percent compared to the same period last year which was 48 069,91ha. Although Zvimba is the second highest in terms of hectarage burnt, positives were realised after a 17,4 percent reduction in the area burnt.

“That can be attributed to continuous stakeholder and community engagement efforts while we are working closely with the local authority, traditional leadership and other stakeholders in environmental management,” he said.

In Makonde District, Mr Nhariswa said, there was a marked an upsurge of 32,8 percent area burnt a rise from 29 331,29ha in 2017 to 38 969,29ha this year. He said EMA had, however, put in place a cocktail of measures to try to combat the rise in veld fires.

“The strategies include the serving of environmental protection orders, directing farmers to construct standard fireguards along their property boundaries, awareness meetings, resuscitation and training of firefighting committees.”