ZAMBIA: Coping with less and less water

KAOMA, 1 October 2008 (IRIN) - Deforestation has affected the water cycle in one of Zambia's largest charcoal-producing regions, forcing residents to adopt unsustainable farming practices in the wetlands, say experts.

Since the 1990s, several perennial streams in the Kaoma district of Western Province have become seasonal and some have even dried up, while the water level in the Luena River, which flows through the town of Kaoma, has dropped, say residents.

Morris Muchinda, director of the Zambia Meteorological Department, said there was a correlation between the streams drying up and charcoal production, which began in the district on a fairly large scale in the 1990s.

Zambia is one of the Food and Agriculture Organisation's top ten countries with the highest annual deforestation rates. Most of the trees are used as firewood or to produce charcoal.

Trees draw ground water up through their roots and release it into the atmosphere, so when forests are removed the region cannot hold as much water, which could lead to a drier climate, said Muchinda.

Deforestation also affects the carbon cycle warming up the atmosphere, and is responsible for 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon emissions every year, amounting to one-fifth of the global total.

According to the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research, this is more than the combined total contributed by the world's energy-intensive transport sectors. Some estimates put the contribution of deforestation to climate change at almost the same level as fossil fuel use in the United States.

Rainfall in Kaoma town has declined over the past three decades. Between 1960 and 1970 the town recorded an average rainfall of 945mm; from 1971 to 1980 this declined slightly to 943mm, before slumping to 839mm between 1981 and 1990. By 2000, the figure had fallen to 823mm.
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