By A Correspondent -Chipinge South, Manicaland Province — The floods ravaging Lisungwe Island have escalated into a human rights crisis, stripping women and girls of food, shelter, and access to essential health services. Already responsible for household survival, women now face hunger, displacement, and heightened exposure to disease as climate‑related destruction worsens across Manicaland.

Sixteen villagers remain trapped on Lisungwe Island, stranded for days without food or medical support. More than 600 families in Uketi, Chigumeta, Ndhlondhlo, and Mathukutheya have lost crops, livestock, homes, and clean water sources. Washed‑out bridges and inaccessible roads have cut off entire communities, leaving pregnant women, the elderly, and young children particularly at risk.

Stagnant floodwaters have created ideal conditions for cholera, dysentery, and malaria — threats that disproportionately affect women, who are caregivers and often the last to receive food during crises. Each day, their rights to food, health, safety, and dignity are being eroded.
Across Manicaland, climate‑related devastation continues to mount. This season alone, 134 people have died due to extreme weather. In Honde Valley, the swelling Honde River swept away residents, while mudslides and flash floods destroyed homesteads in Chipinge.

Despite such recurring disasters, Zimbabwe still relies on the outdated 1989 Civil Protection Act, a framework ill‑equipped for today’s climate realities. The act lacks gender‑responsive mechanisms and rapid‑response structures, leaving communities — especially women — dangerously unprotected. In this vacuum, civil society organizations are demanding urgent reforms. Project Kuchengetedza Zviwanikwa (PKZ) warns that Lisungwe Island, once a productive agricultural zone, is now a symbol of climate vulnerability and government inaction. PKZ stresses that emergency responses must prioritize women’s access to food, safe shelter, clean water, and protection services.

The Climate Action Coalition of Zimbabwe echoes these concerns, calling climate disasters a structural threat requiring long‑term adaptation, community‑driven early‑warning systems, and meaningful inclusion of women’s leadership in policymaking.

Desdomona Munengwa, Team Leader of the Chipinge Residents and Ratepayers Trust (CRRT), called for immediate state action, saying: “The floods in Lisungwe Island have stripped women of their basic rights to food, shelter, and dignity. Without urgent intervention, the cycle of hunger, displacement, and vulnerability will continue to erode livelihoods and deepen poverty.”

For women and girls in Manicaland, climate change is no longer a distant threat; it is a daily emergency. Without coordinated action from government, humanitarian actors, and climate justice networks such as the Climate Action Coalition of Zimbabwe, the region risks being trapped in a relentless cycle of loss and recovery.