Zim's love-hate relationship with the rain

Arthur Choga

Have you ever noticed how conflicted Zimbabweans are about rain?

It is one of the most interesting conversations to observe.

It gets even more interesting after it has been raining for three straight days and a fourth dark grey morning has begun, leaking fat raindrops all over the show.

On one hand, most right thinking Zimbabweans know that without rains we are dead in the water (bad pun, I know).

The same people also know that the more it rains, the more the muddy soup that is our roads becomes more and more treacherous to traverse.

So people are stuck between cursing the rains for making the roads Water Whirld on wheels for adults and being thankful for the harvest it brings. That Water Whirld reference may be lost on younger people. This was a set of water slides in Harare’s Eastlea, famed as being the biggest and best of their kind when they opened and operated for over a decade. They are no longer operational.

Zimbabwe is renowned as an agricultural paradise.

It boasts a great climate for most food crops and has among the most benign weather conditions in the world. Even birds fly out here from Europe to enjoy the climate.

The country does not experience extreme weather such as hurricanes. It does not sit on any major fault lines so there are no real earthquakes to talk about. There is the occasional cyclone, which will hit the country once in a while and which with improved disaster preparedness needs not be as destructive and deadly as previous ones have been.

So, with the right amount of planning and preparation, one can conceivably grow any crop in the country and it will survive and bring in a harvest.

All the harvests are made possible by the rain.

Urban roads in Zimbabwe are a daily topic of derision.

Driving in the suburbs (never mind high or medium or low) is a skiing lesson on the go. Slalom skiers have nothing on Zim drivers as they waltz between potholes and skid between mud patches. It is all good when driving along the rehabilitated parts, but inevitably one has to ride along the other sections of road as well.

People, young and old, on their way to work and school, all dressed up have to keep a wary eye on cars and potholes in their vicinity.

Car tyres have a way, even at very slow speeds, of scooping out all the mud in the nearest pothole and hurling it at the nearest yellow trousers, or white shoes.

It is easy to understand the predicament we face here.

Complain about the rain and you immediately get tagged as a hater of all things farming.

“Do you know that farming is the backbone of all things…”

“There is no substitute for water! Electricity can be replaced by solar power, but you can’t make water!”

Therefore, the wise keep their mouths shut, feel the raindrops on their backs and slide along.

True, we need the rains. They are the lifeblood of everything.

Do they have to cause such misery through?

Ever seen a woman, fresh from the hair salon, caught in a downpour, after getting off a lift?

First she tries to make a run for it, looking for shelter. Eventually, she just gives up and trudges along, shoes in hand (always shoes in hand), with 20USD flowing down her face and sticking to her scalp. Misery, writ large.

I suggest we should make the rain a welcome addition to all things good. We should be able to live side by side, merrily, with downpours.

Local authorities have a duty to make sure this happens. There is no point in us continuing to show large pools in the middle of the city because drainage systems were blocked.

Someone needs to have their bottom booted into the storeroom with all the masterplans, find the drainage plan, extract it and truckloads of people need to get off their collective bottoms and get to work clearing these drains properly.

It is a commitment issue.

Someone has to stand up and do it. Otherwise the rainy season will always be that uncle who provides us with school fees, but who we secretly fear and loathe because he is strict and demands that we show all manner of diplomacy and creativity in dealing with him.