Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has declared a national disaster to tackle the prolonged drought affecting the country.
Addressing the nation on Thursday afternoon, Mr Hichilema said 84 districts out of a total of 116 were affected.
Zambia has been experiencing poor rain, with fears mounting that the country may experience hunger and struggle to meet its electricity demands as most of its energy is from water sources.
Water levels at Kariba Dam - which Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe use for hydroelectricity - had fallen to about 11.5% of usable storage as of last December.
The president said the drought would affect the generation of more than 450 megawatts of power.
He said almost half of the land used for planting crops had been affected by the dry spell.
Mr Hichilema said his government would work to ensure that additional maize and other food was brought into the country to make up the deficit.
He said he would use Zambia's defence forces “in this fight to save our lives and save families and create a longer-term solution to drought".
“We will work together to get together farmers to plant more crops. We shall also enhance the social support programmes for the farmers that have been affected by the drought,” he said.
“We call upon all our local and international partners to avail any excess food on hand to provide relief. Some partners have already extended their commitment to offer their support, such as the British, the UN system, the World Bank Group and others."
He called on farmers to use irrigation methods to cope with the dry spell. An estimated one million farmers have been affected by the drought.
Mr Hichilema said his government would work with different stakeholders, opposition politicians and the church to tackle the situation.
Social media has been awash with videos and pictures of fields with dying crops.
Source: BBC
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This Zambian president is one of the few presidents in the continent who has his people at heart. He's ready to make sacrifices to make life better for his people. During his inauguration as president, he declined to approve 1.8 million dollars for the procurement of new vehicles for his office. Instead he decided to use the vehicles that were left behind by his predecessor . Again he declined to commission V8 vehicles procured for the mayor and other top officers in one of the districts in his country . According to him the cost of one V8 can build toilets in all the markets in that district. He goes on to tell the mayor, if you want to drive a V8, buy your own. He adds, whose money are you using to procure the V8 vehicles? He says he has not bought any new vehicle since he assumed duty as president of Zambia because he's consious of the fact that the people's money doesn't belong to him. Why won't Zambias be ready to make sacrifices when he calls on them to do so? Leadership should be about practicing what you preach unlike my country where they preach virtue and practice vice. This is a good example of a country that the international community should support because of its selfless leader. Zambians will not starve , God is in control. He will find a way out for them.