Zimbabwe is living through one of the most punishing climate seasons in its recent history in 2026. Since October 2025, the country has been battered by wave after wave of torrential rain, flash floods and crumbling infrastructure, a scenario that confirms fears long voiced by humanitarian organisations and climate scientists alike.
The human toll keeps climbing month after month. As of 29 April, the Department of Civil Protection had recorded at least 138 deaths and 72 injuries since the start of the rainy season, most victims having drowned while trying to cross swollen rivers, been struck by lightning, or buried in the collapse of rain-soaked artisanal mines. A significant share of the damage traces back to Tropical Cyclone Dudzai, which struck the south-east and west of the country in January, unleashing particularly destructive flash floods. Manicaland, the province bordering Mozambique, bore the heaviest losses, followed by Mashonaland West and Matabeleland South. More than 1,300 homes were destroyed, while roads, bridges, schools and health facilities suffered considerable damage, at times cutting off entire communities for weeks.
This deluge highlights a paradox typical of southern Africa: even as some provinces buckle under the weight of water, other parts of the same country continue battling persistent dryness. Harare offers the starkest example. The capital has been dragging a chronic drinking-water crisis since 2008, worsened by ageing infrastructure, structural underfunding and poor governance. Lake Chivero, the city’s main water source, regularly struggles to meet the needs of its nearly 2.4 million residents, forcing authorities to impose rationing. A government plan aims to raise treated water output from 303 to 500 megalitres a day by the end of the year, largely through the construction of the Kunzvi Dam, though concrete results on the ground remain to be seen.
On the agricultural front, the picture is thankfully less grim than one might expect after such a chaotic season. The 2026 harvest, which began in April, is expected to broadly improve food access nationwide, pulling the usual hotspots of hunger back from acute crisis toward a state of stress rather than outright emergency, a trend forecasters at the FEWS NET network expect to hold through September. That improvement, however, conceals sharp regional disparities. In parts of Masvingo and Matabeleland, excess moisture has waterlogged soils and damaged crops, forcing affected households to draw down their food reserves earlier than usual and lean more heavily on markets to get by. And that is precisely where the trouble deepens: two consecutive fuel price hikes in March, thirty-five percent for diesel and thirty-nine percent for petrol, drove up transport, production and ultimately food costs, eating into the purchasing power of the poorest families whether or not they were directly hit by the storms.
The response to this emergency came together fairly quickly. On 5 February, a relief operation led by the Zimbabwe Red Cross was launched with support from the Department of Civil Protection, prioritising the provinces of Masvingo and Matabeleland South. Throughout February, several of the country’s major dams, including Tugwi Mukosi, Manjirenji, Manyuchi and Bubi-Lupane, filled to capacity or began spilling over, forcing authorities to release water in ways that themselves worsened downstream flooding and damaged farmland and irrigation networks. Children, older people, those living with disabilities and the chronically ill bore a disproportionate share of the fallout from this instability.
Notably, Zimbabwe did not remain merely a recipient of aid. Even while managing its own crisis, it sent relief to neighbouring Mozambique, which was hit even harder, in the form of grain, blankets, building materials and even two helicopters deployed for search and rescue operations. Acting President Kembo Mohadi used the moment to warn of a worrying rise in extreme weather events across the region, calling for a collective strengthening of preparedness and resilience.
Still, the resources committed often look modest against the scale of need. Emergency funds mobilised amount to a few hundred thousand Swiss francs, while the damage runs into thousands of destroyed homes and tens of thousands of people affected. That imbalance confirms a diagnosis that is far from new: Zimbabwe ranks among the countries most exposed to climate risk anywhere in the world, yet its capacity to manage and anticipate that risk remains structurally limited, a gap that these recurring disasters keep laying bare.
