April Floods Push Women to the Edge in Chipinge South – Eduzim News

CHIPINGE- Torrential rains beginning on 22 April 2026 have unleashed a new wave of destruction across Lisungwe Island and surrounding villages, deepening the humanitarian crisis for women and girls. More than 600 families from Uketi, Chigumeta, Ndhlondhlo, and Mathukutheya have lost crops, livestock, homes, and clean water. Roads are impassable, disease outbreaks loom, and women — the backbone of household survival — are being stripped of their rights to food, shelter, and dignity.

Councillor Liberty Chauke (Ward 29) confirmed that the heaviest rains in the Save and Runde Catchment Areas have their last destination in Mahenye before flowing into Mozambique. He noted that villagers are still at the flood plain trying to harvest, while temporary shelters, crops, and household properties have been destroyed. He urged the government to declare the situation a national emergency/disaster.

Across Manicaland, the toll is staggering: 134 lives lost to extreme weather, including fatalities in Honde Valley where the Honde River swept away families. Yet Zimbabwe’s disaster response remains shackled by the outdated 1989 Civil Protection Act, leaving communities to fend for themselves while women shoulder the heaviest burdens.

Poverty Alleviation Trust, a leading women’s organization in Chipinge, warns that Lisungwe Island, once a breadbasket, now stands as a stark symbol of climate vulnerability and state neglect. The organization stresses that relief efforts must prioritize women’s access to food, shelter, and safe water. “Women are at the receiving end of this disaster. They are hungry, homeless, and exposed. Relief efforts must prioritize women’s access to food, shelter, and safe water,” the Trust emphasized.

Adding her voice, Ancillah Gwegweni of Poverty Alleviation Trust urged authorities to act swiftly:
“The floods in Lisungwe Island have stripped women of their basic rights to food, shelter, and dignity. Women are carrying the heaviest burden of this disaster, yet they remain at the margins of response. The government must take swift and decisive action to protect women’s rights — ensuring immediate access to food, safe shelter, and clean water. Without urgent intervention, the cycle of hunger, displacement, and vulnerability will continue to erode livelihoods and deepen poverty.”

This April crisis comes on the heels of March 2026 floods, when families across Chipinge South lost homes, crops, and livestock. With livelihoods already weakened, the new rains have compounded suffering, leaving women and girls at the sharpest edge of climate change.

For communities in Mahenye and across Chipinge South, climate change is not only an environmental disaster — it is a human rights emergency.

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