The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has dismissed fears that the opening of flood gates at Lake Kariba is likely to affect both domestic and wildlife in the surrounding areas.
ZAWA Public Relations officer Wilfred Moonga told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the opening of flood gates posedno threat to wildlife because most animal parks were not along the river banks.
Mr. Moonga explained that it was the responsibility of the authority to ensure that animals in all parks were protected at all times.
He noted that if there were any signs of a possible flood which could affect wildlife, ZAWA could have put in place measures to mitigate such occurrence.
“As at now no measures have been put in place because we know that our animals are safe from these floods”, Mr. Moonga said.
He further said that at the moment all wildlife in Luangwa and lower Zambezi national parks are protected.
Mr. Moonga said whenever there were threats of floods in one area, animals were normally moved from the low lands to higher grounds.
“If there is any threat of floods the animals will automatically be moved to higher grounds were their safety is guaranteed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Moonga has disclosed that domestic animals in the surrounding communities are expected to be affected by the floods once the gates are opened.
He explained that this is because some communities are so close to the river.
ZANIS
‘the animals will automatically be moved to…We are really advanced in Zambia. They will just press a remote control and the animals will move to higher grounds! I should buy this remote control for my partner.
ZAWA is such a useless organization, I’m surprised they even have a named PR officer
Well, we shall wait for the outcome and the consequencies that will culminate.
that water shud be put to good use…wheres the govt..?
A “fair dinkum” zambian for you! He probably has never been to Lower Zambezi – the most likely to be affected Park. Could he please tell us how he will “automatically” remove all the “free roaming wildlife” to higher ground that frequent Kanyemba Island & others that dot the Lower Zambezi – sometimes , it’s better to keep big mouths shut!! Any reasonable evacuation, would have to be close to or equal to “Operation Noah’s ark” that was conducted at the inception of Kariba dam.
Total nosense! Hope the spillways in Itezhi-Tezhi won’t be opened at the same time as this has proved a disaster before.
I really hoped that the Zambian authorities had a better idea of what was going in their parks and reserves that our Zimbabwean authorities do, however it seems that they are as clueless as each other. We are not discussing a minor little problem here, there is a huge amount at stake along the Zambezi both in Zim and Zambia and its all taken for granted…. I wonder who is responsible for ensuring maintenance on the Kariba Dam is carried out!!! Can you imagine the catastrophe it that burst? No automatic removal of animals would help then!!!