The world has, over the past fortnight, witnessed a couple of major natural calamities, starting with the horrific catastrophe in Venezuela, where some 2,000 people perished in an earthquake. Then came the heatwave in Europe that claimed hundreds of lives.

It was amazing that even as angry mother nature was baking them to death, the Europeans continued carrying out emergency relief activities to help the Venezuelans.

It was hard to push away thoughts of wondering how most African countries would have fared if these calamities had hit home, given our state of infrastructure. Since climate change became common knowledge two decades ago, any serious country is expected to take investment in robust infrastructure seriously.

We are not saying that earthquakes also result from climate change, but those who pay decent attention to infrastructure planning and development stand better chances of surviving a shaking of the earth.

Costly neglectI don’t know about many other countries but last Monday during Uganda’s launch of the Country Partnership Framework and the Public Finance Review, World Bank Director for Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Somalia, Qimiao Fan said that currently 33 percent of every shilling invested by the country in infrastructure is “lost in poor planning, project delays and weak maintenance.”In other words, for every $3 billion budgeted for infrastructure, $1 billion is wasted, and the country wouldn’t be any worse off if that billion was burnt or thrown into the sea.

It is already bad enough that the wasted billion would still have to be paid back if borrowed or the opportunity cost needlessly lost if it was from own (tax) revenues. But wouldn’t it be better common sense to stop the 33 percent wastage and ensure we have more robust infrastructure?Or would it be unkind to the poor officials who need the “wastage” to support their expensive lifestyles and we don’t wish their dear families to break up for failing to fund their shopping holidays abroad?And what are the chances of Africa going to the rescue of a country that is hit by a natural calamity on another continent? We are asking about Africa that is not under climatic siege unlike Europe that was under heat wave but rushed to provide logistics and relief supplies to Venezuela.

For the answer, look at the current (non)response by Africa to the life-threatening situation that Cuba is under. For the younger Africans who may not know, Cuba sacrificed a lot to support Africa’s independence struggles, up to and including as recent as just over three decades ago, when the Cubans played a big role in breaking the back of Apartheid.

Well, today Cuba is paying a steep price for its care for human dignity and the economic siege it has been subjected to is threatening to drive the country back into the Stone Age.

Seeds of resilienceTo avoid feeling ashamed over our apparent heartlessness and ingratitude, let us Africans pretend that we haven’t heard about Cuba’s agony. But haven’t we Africans also heard about the danger we are facing particularly regarding food insecurity occasioned by climate change?Do we need someone to remind us that we are losing the indigenous food crops that were resistant to the drought and pre-existing pests, in favour of imported breeds whose seed production we have little control over?What efforts are being made to preserve indigenous seeds which even the poorest peasants could “afford” by just keeping a portion of this season’s harvest so as to be able to plant next season? So the non-indigenous seeds have a higher yield, but what is wrong with keeping some indigenous seeds for security reasons?Why are many Africans abandoning the traditional knowledge of what experts call agro-forestry but was practised by our grandparents and parents by relying on naturally occurring tree to symbiotically coexist with food crops, supporting one another during harsh weather conditions while also maintaining soil fertility?But the same Europeans amazingly were mobilising materials and logistical support for the Venezuelans, even as their own desperate citizens were succumbing to heat and some were dying of drowning when trying to cool themselves wherever they saw open water.

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