Clean up your own mess
Some of the youths from Zimbabwe who were part of the Trans African Caravan of Hope
The Youths in Tourism in Zimbabwe say polluters should ‘clean their mess’ by funding adaptation programmes which create employment for millions of unemployed youths in the country.
Polluters are like someone who comes to use my kitchen to cook their food. My kitchen is left dirty and I do not eat the food. I do the cleaning of the kitchen because it is left dirty
Tumisang Dube (23), a member of the Zimbabwe Youths and Tourism group, said during an interview while on the Caravan of Hope.
Tumisang, is among 21 other environment activists from various organizations in Zimbabwe who joined other activists from other East and Southern African countries on the Caravan of Hope on 23 November 2011. The Caravan of Hope passed through Zimbabwe from Zambia and from Zimbabwe, it passed through Botswana and finally Durban South Africa where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of Parties (COP 17) starts on 28th of November 2011.
“Those who ate the food from my kitchen and made it dirty should help in the cleaning,” Tumisang said, adding that “so called investors” were the biggest culprits in polluting Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has not been spared from climatic changes and recent dry spells affecting the country have been attributed to climate change. The country is getting more vulnerable to climatic changes and local climatologists predict sectoral impacts affecting various sectors from environment, agriculture and food security, health, water resources, economic activities, human migration and physical infrastructure.
“Zimbabwe was known to be the bread basket of Southern Africa. In recent years yields have been poor due to droughts which are associated to climate change,“ Tumisang said. She said in addition to the pollution caused to the environment, many youths were bearing the effects of climate change in many other forms. She said there was high unemployment among youths and yet the “so called investors” were present in the country “causing havoc” to the environment. Harsh economic conditions in Zimbabwe have seen unemployment levels reaching more than 90% percent in the last 10 years, with youths hardest hit.
Tumisang called upon polluters to engage youths in climate change adaptation programmes, which will see her country copying with the climate change as well as promoting the employment of youths in Zimbabwe.