US$7m needed for Zim met services
by Norest Musvaba in Nairobi Tuesday 13 April 2010
ZIMBABWE requires more than US$7 million to upgrade its archaic meteorological department to meet the demands of global climatic changes increasingly affecting farming patterns across the world, meteorological
services chief Amos Makarau has said.
The Zimbabwe meteorological services director, who was speaking on Monday on the sidelines of an ongoing conference in Kenya for top government officials in charge of meteorological services in Africa, called on Harare to seek help from the international community to revamp the weather forecasting department that is also critical for air travel safety.
“Funding has not been adequate. Zimbabwe needs to engage the international community once again because we have not been doing well for the past years because of our political situation,” Makarau said.
“We are looking for over US$7 million to resuscitate radar networks, to upgrade our infrastructure and to scale up training for human resources.”
Makarau said his department needs cash to buy equipment and to reopen weather stations closed because of lack of resources, adding this was critical to ensure correct and reliable weather information for farmers in a
country that has experienced erratic rains for the past decade that have contributed to food shortages.
The Nairobi conference organised by the World Meteorological Organisation and the African Union is aimed at strengthening the role of national meteorological and hydrological services on the continent where natural
disasters such as droughts and floods have often exacerbated poverty and hunger. – ZimOnline