Africa is in danger of losing more lives to climate change and being left further behind in its development journey if climate financing is inadequate. With over 1 000 people killed in countries along the Indian Ocean, the need to determine the structure of calculating equitable values for losses and damages comes firmly into sight.

These need to include cultural, traditional, familial, historic, sentimental, psychological, emotional, mental and physical.

These fall outside the economic frame, thus unquantifiable as loss and damage.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines non - economic losses as those not commonly traded in markets, sometimes overlapping dimensions of harm from climate change impacting individuals, society and the environment.

They include the loss of life, health or mobility, the loss of territory, cultural heritage, indigenous and local knowledge, societal or cultural identity, and biodiversity or ecosystem services.

Five years after Cyclone Idai which left almost 350 dead, more than 250 missing, 60 000 displaced and an estimated 129 600 children affected, DanChurchAid led an anthropological fact-finding international media mission to Kopa — the epicentre of the disaster — to advocate for climate financing. That same week, Storm Boris hit Europe, leaving a trail of destruction from Romania to Poland in what has been described as the worst flooding in 20 years.

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Zimbabwe's physical and economic losses were calculated by the World Bank at US$542 616 based on 865 kilometres of road, 20 354 metres of bridges, 294 health facilities, 971 schools and 18 000 houses damaged and destroyed. The Civil Protection Unit (CPU), which is responsible for disaster response, likened the cumulative losses to US$1 trillion, equating it to the ravages of an overnight war.

The gap between the two figures is so alarming it cannot be ignored.

The DanChurchAid — led mission sought to determine these non-quantifiable costs through the lens of the survivors of Cyclone Idai, given the strong emphasis set by the United Nations General Assembly (#UNGA79) on climate financing, paving the way for a call for funding, at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this year.

One victim, Morgan Ngorora explained how a decision to go to Mutare on the morning of 15 March 2019 saved his life.

But it claimed his house, wife and three children.

They were swept away by flood waters rising over 12 metres, which wiped away an entire settlement of approximately 300 houses in Kopa, together with most of its inhabitants.

A local village head spoke of a similar flood in Chimanimani in 1942.

But 80 years later, the world, the country, and indeed Chimanimani were never ready for such a catastrophe.

An English teacher at Ndima Secondary School, Herim Kazembe, thought he was dead when he was swept away by the first wave of flash floods for several kilometres in seconds, separating him from his family as they tried to get to higher ground. Then there was the eventual horror of losing his wife with their baby, strapped to her back, in the second wave.

In the week of this visit  — September 2024 — the missing were officially declared dead, in accordance with the law. Families received death certificates enabling them to claim their entitled benefits. But without bodies to bury, neither Ngorora nor Kazembe have experienced closure over their losses.

Joseph Maphosa, a civil servant and musician, awoke to find his feet in water, and his bed raised to the roof by flood waters.

He spent three days cold and wet, in a tree, waiting for help. Maphosa narrated his two years of nightmares, running into walls in his dreams, trying to escape the rising water.

In 2020, he released a music video about Cyclone Idai in which he names the deceased and missing persons — friends and neighbours — people he used to know.

For many, there were no bodies to find and bury.

For some even the existing graves of family members were now gone, together with shrines and other traditional ritual sites.

 The government is working on plans to establish commemorative sites to help bring closure to communities.

The CPU talked about finding bodies at the confluence of Rusitu, Chipita and Nyahode rivers, and how no one could have survived the experience of being washed along that corridor.

They described how bodies were crushed by hippopotamuses, killed and eaten by crocodiles.

They found bodies in Mozambique months later, some burnt beyond recognition on farms, incomplete skeletons that were determined to belong to the same persons, with the help of pathologists. It was impossible to bring all the bodies home, especially when some could not be identified.

Survivors told of how a sense of humanity and compassion washed over the affected community in the immediate aftermath.

Shopkeepers gave away their stocks to keep the grief-stricken survivors alive. One grieving mother recalled how a local man gave coffins for free at St John’s Roman Catholic Church in Ngangu. The church became a safe house while doubling as a morgue for the community to gather up their dead.

It served as the local clinic, and as a community centre. Unknown to the survivors at the time, no one could come to rescue them. About 95% of the road network and 10 crucial bridges had either been destroyed or damaged, electricity and telephone lines had also been also been damaged.

Not even helicopters could make their way through due to poor visibility.

The CPU talked of the hours, the manpower, and the risks that had to be overcome to reach affected sites. Big companies with assumed competencies and capacity to help shied away, leaving the military, the Chinese and a few local companies to rescue the hungry, traumatised, devastated survivors. No one can quantify the trauma.

But in interviews, members of the CPU indicated that they too needed counselling.

The devastation and destruction of Cyclone Idai whose strength matched that of a Category 3 hurricane, spanned three provinces and nine districts, affecting an estimated 44% of the country, and leaving 71 learners orphaned.

Many children lost between three and five years of schooling between the disaster, the relocation or “rebuild better” phase, leaving a generation behind. For those who did return to school, the physical wounds and emotional scars have left an indelible mark on their lives.

Nineteen year old Travail Ngorima suffered an injury which led to the amputation of toes on his left foot. Ngorima narrated how the pain prevented him from sitting for his final examinations in 2023.

Having now healed, he was only just able to secure a place to write his examinations in 2024 due to limited finances.  Against hope, a buddying keyboard player, Ngorima dreams of one day sharing his musical gift with the world.

Thirty seven year old Oppah Magodo who had never spoken about her experience in five years, recalled finding her husband’s abandoned car a day after the destruction.

In it, she found his cell phone, with a video recording of his last moments before he was swept away by the flood waters.

She talked of not sleeping, thinking how to pay school fees and make ends meet. Others simply refused to speak to the media team.

Another woman recounted the horror of being trapped by flood waters between a wardrobe and bed, unable to help her three children.

She watched her youngest child being swept away, and the search in the hours that followed.

There was relief when she found her two youngest children after searching tirelessly in the mud and debris, among dead bodies. 

Then there was heartbreak, when she found her eldest daughter's lifeless body. Her story is like that of many neighbours and friends, who now live in a new settlement called Runyararo (Peace).

The trauma of living in temporary shelters for two years or more and having nothing  was compounded by Covid-19.

Cyclone Idai reality.

Runyararo was deemed geologically safe by the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency after condemning several sites as unsafe following geophysical assessments. 

It houses a state-of-the-art health facility, built with the support of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, a school and modern homes.

These facilities have given dignity back to survivors and victims.

After the completion of the first 159 houses, many households were relocated there. Government and its partners stepped up to supply residents with solarised boreholes while looking for US$25 million to build a piped water scheme to support the new settlement.

Unfactored loses also include livelihoods — having a regular income to cover household bills, pay school fees and meet medical and other expenses.

Hospital staff indicated that despite the new hospital being closer, most of the local community cannot afford US$5 required to access services.

Similarly, reports at the school, which has three teachers meeting the needs of 75 children, indicated that not many locals can afford US$2 per term for school fees.

It is, unfortunately, a far cry from the dream of the future that many of these survivors had in mind.

Ultimately, five years later the disaster risk assessment plans have been updated, the displaced relocated, death certificates issued, but how will these personal horrors and losses factor into climate financing? Given the rate at which climate events have occurred in 2024, all eyes are on COP29 in Baku to determine the way forward.

Many are waiting in anticipation to see if COP29 will deliver any tangible outcomes.

  • Ukama currently heads communications for DanChurchAid Zimbabwe, the lead partner of the Utariri integrated biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods programme across the Zambezi Valley. She started her career as a journalist and has served as editor for the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and was head of communications for the African Union Foundation.