DROUGHT IN 1991 AFFECTED 50.8% COMPARED TO 2024 AT 29%…So which year had the worst drought?- Thomas Sipalo

So what? You can go to hell, always trying to find faults. How can he remember such fine details live on the most important tv cable news in the world?
How many Presidents do you see being interviewed like that?
How do you get sympathy by telling well wishers that actually your problem is not as severe as the last one?
Fimo ifintu muleibwelamo because to get a good response from your audience, comedians fabricate lies too

I think just talking about the number of people affected by a drought is not enough to determine it’s severity. We are talking about two different time periods where things may not be the same. For instance, in 1991/92 Zambia hardly had any agriculture technology for crops to survive droughts compared today, so a drought at that time could have a more severe impact on a large number of people compared to today when we have improvements in agricultural technology in terms of crop resilience and drought resistance so one can’t claim it was the drought was worse based on that only.
Secondly, in 1991/92, most people were in formal employment and people in formal employment at that time did not bother to do any farming hence only a handful of people were farming, therefore, any drought could affect more people because only a few people were producing the food.
In my opinion, the best way to determine the worst drought would be compare the water/rainful received in these two periods. But all that is still besides the point and does not help us resolve the current challenges we may face this year as a result of drought so we should focus on devising ways of mitigation the effects of the drought in this year instead talking about of pointless things like which one is the worst drought.

Statistics can achieve whatever “pocket” Agenda one wants to achieve. Which was easier, to feed 4million people affected in 1991 or 6million to be affected in 2024? What was the Health of the national economy in 1991 compared to 2024? What was the spread and localisation of the Drought in 1991 and 2024 in Zambia?2-3 weeks frequent Dry Spells spread over the entire rainy season is better and less devastating than two months of “continuous no rain”!! If this 2024 Drought ravaged the northern region of our country and spared the maizebelt of southern and eastern regions, I would be confident that the 6million people in 2024 to be adversely affected by hunger would have no cause to worry of going to bed hungry

Simpo Sitali, I agree with you. Anyhow, we are also discussing nothing here because drought is drought since the unfortunate reciptients are the same us ZAMBIANS. We should just stand in unity with the President and his government. It’s not easy to resolve a natural catastrophy like this one.

Zambians are their own worst enemies. Instead of uniting together, they are busy pulling each other down.

There is no doubt, no question that there is a drought in the entire southern Africa region. The extent and impact depends on who you ask. It is a minor detail beyond the simple fact that there is a drought and that aid is urgently required otherwise consequences will escalate.

Someone is trying to recruit help to support the nation. If you feel the current crisis does not affect you, best to shut the fark up.

Bo sipalo better you keep quiet before things gets bad with you, because you don’t make any sense in your arguments, shut up

Sipalo brings a simplistic komboni analysis to the present drought situation. The impact of this drought is not in food basket only as it also weighs negatively on the energy sector cutting across the whole country. The planners of this country installed power generation capacity in the southern half of the country to feed the whole country, this when the Southern half is in dire stress the whole country has a disastrous power outage affecting the whole national economic fabric. The national connectivity rate to the power grid has exponentially increased from where it was in 1992 . Equally the the size of our economy has since grown in leaps and bounds over the years . Further in terms of agricultural it’s important to be careful and compare like with like between the two droughts. Southern, Lusaka , Eastern and Central are undeniably the majority productive agricultural zones in this country. When these regions are affected the whole nation will surely be in a hunger crisis. We are talking about the nations food basket areas here.

Sipalo, you are looking at Zambia alone. Look at the region and the answer will be clear. In 1991 procurement of maize was easy because most Neighbours were not affected by drought. This one has affected many neighbours with ZIm the most hit. Second, the population to feed from the same hectares of land is three times what it was in 1991. Energy demand from power generation using mostly hydro generated power is 36 times the 1991. Do the maths. Elementary months which is also found my komboni

Sipalo, you are looking at Zambia alone. Look at the region and the answer will be clear. In 1991 procurement of maize was easy because most Neighbours were not affected by drought. This one has affected many neighbours with ZIm the most hit. Second, the population to feed from the same hectares of land is three times what it was in 1991. Energy demand from power generation using mostly hydro generated power is 36 times the 1991. Do the maths. Elementary months which is also found my komboni. Analysis yamu komboni?

So says one without the privileged data of a head of state….