 Today, I do, with a heavy heart, address you as fellow citizens. Address you under the circumstances where our beloved country faces a severe drought, one of a kind in many years. I've not seen this kind of drought for many years. I'm a village boy myself. I don't remember a particular year when the community could not even test, even pumpkins from that year's crop. Never seen it before. It's my first time. We know that this is caused by the El Nino weather conditions in the 2023-2024 season and we all know that last year we had a combination of a drought and flooding in the same season. So this is a compounded situation. And we know that this is influenced by the climate change phenomenon, the negative effect of climate change. These drought colleagues, fellow citizens, have devastating consequences on many critical sectors such as agriculture, water availability, and indeed energy supply, especially for a country like ours, whose energy mix is tilted towards hydro, green as it is, but tilted towards hydro. And when you have a drought like this, you have a dramatic effect on the energy supply as well. This obviously creates a risk, brings about a risk to our national food security and livelihoods of many of our millions, many of our people. As you know, a lot of our people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. And it is important that we understand the gravity of this drought from that angle. This obviously, as one would expect, affects negatively our economic growth agenda. As you all know, we dabbed 2024 as a year of economic expansion for jobs, for business opportunities, for sustainable social support. Obviously, these will be impaired. But we are determined to continue with this narrative of 2024 being an economic year for us expansion growth, for the obvious reasons and the benefits. But we can't ignore the effect of this drought on this agenda. The destruction caused by the prolonged drought spell is immense. Nearly all about 84 of our 116 districts are severely affected. These are in Lusaka, Central Province, Copper Belt, Eastern, Northwestern, indeed Western and Southern provinces. This is widespread, as I say. I actually didn't realize until late that even Northwestern parts deeper into Kavumpa, Mufungwe, they've been affected. Ordinarily, these are rainy areas in our country. So this is really, really unfortunate. At the national level, the estimated planted area of 2.2 million hectares of this total, approximately 1 million hectares, has been destroyed by this drought. The dry spell is projected to continue even into the month of March, as you know, February is ending. And it means now for over five weeks we've not had rain. At the time the crop needs the moisture the most. The effects are clear. The effects are clear. The dry spell is projected to continue even beyond what is normal. And there is no doubt the current projections are that over a million farming households will be affected. Equally affected, as I said earlier, is the energy sector that is expected to have a deficit of close to 450 megawatts. This may even extend to well over 500 megawatts of electricity this year. And do you know what that means? To our economy, to our mining, which we have promoted heavily, and obviously to agriculture. The current drought conditions have also affected the availability of both surface and groundwater. We know that groundwater is recharged for us in our country every year when we have the rain season. The groundwater table is recharged. Now, this year this will be impaired. There's no question that the past cheerful livestock and wildlife have also been affected, will be affected dramatically. Therefore the incidence of human-animal conflicts will increase, including the disease burden. As you know there's a crossover between animal and human being in terms of disease from one speech to another. And that does happen, especially we're sharing one or limited sources of water. That is likely to be a problem. The drought compounds the challenges that the country was already facing, such as COVID-19. As you know, when we took office, we found COVID-19 at this peak. And we worked very hard. Minister of Health, various partners worked hard. You remember the call for vaccines. You remember the diversion of resources into the fight against COVID-19. As though that was not enough, this drifted into the corona pandemic, which we've just worked hard to bring under control. Now, we have the drought. So literally every seven or so months of our stay in government, today we are two years, six months in government. Which is to count correctly. It means the triple tragedy. If you divide that in less than a year, we're having one tragedy after another. Some tests, but we shall overcome. But here you are. In Eastern, when I went to Nkuala ceremony last week, they called it a triple tragedy. They called four songs, Ngoni songs. HH, Abutik. Mpezen, Mabutik. Tatjoka, Mukovit, Tangena, Mutilala. Sorry, Mukorela. Tatjoka, Mukovit, Tangena, Mukorela. Number two. Tatjoka, Mukorela, Tangena, Mutilala. That's drought in Ngoni. So triple tragedy. Kovit, Korela, Chila, drought. This is the situation colleagues that we're facing in our country. Fellow citizens, in view of these challenges, we have taken a decision, a decisive decision as a government. And in accordance with the Disaster Management Act number 13 of 2010, and other relevant legislation, as a servant of the people, we, I, we hereby declare the prolonged drought spell as a national disaster and emergence officially. We're declaring today. This has been out of scientific work that was done, studies that were done, flights were taken around the country, and other instruments that were used to help us arrive at this decision today. In view of the foregoing, your government will undertake many actions to ameliorate the situation, to mitigate against this challenge. These, that I will list now, are just some amongst the many that will be taken on board. So, shorter measures. We shall channel more resources as a government, as a people, as a community. We shall channel more resources towards humanitarian relief purposes to ensure that our affected citizens do not go hungry. Very important. We shall look at importing additional electricity, including rationing electricity, as is necessary. We will also promote alternative energy sources. We cannot avoid this. We shall ensure that citizens do not engage in negative behavior, which has become commonplace, such as what? Burning bushes, like it's a habit. Looking for a rabbit, you'll burn the grass upon which the community pens to feed livestock. Consequences are there. And we'll be looking at measures around here, such as getting the councils, working with traditional councils first, from our gates bylaws, that will be followed and punishable when people burn grasses. What are the activities? Communities like going fishing, looking for small fish in pools of water. The only pools of water that are available for human and animal consumption. And once they fish in certain ways, villagers like me know, then the water dries up much quicker, because it's been disturbed. That will not be allowed from today going forward. We will work to ensure that additional maize and other foods are brought in the country or mopped around within the country, wherever they are, to address this deficit. I'm a believer that before we place an import process, Minister of Agriculture, we must mop the food that is already available in the country. And we will watch that very carefully. The reason is simple. We will spend the resource envelope we have within the economy, which will help to increase the transactions and not export jobs elsewhere as much as possible. We will leverage the use of Zambia's defense forces in peace times. Luckily, we're a country that has experienced peace for years. And during peace times, and this Commander-in-Chief, this segment of yours has will direct all the defense forces to be involved in this fight to serve our lives, to serve families, but also to create a platform for a longer-term solution to drought. Because climate change is here with us. It's here to stay. So the defense forces, henceforth, will be directed, have been directed to support in the food production. Some of them are already in food production and already have irrigation capacity. But going forward from today, they will be required to do more. Very clear. With the defense, we don't persuade. We issue instructions. So the instruction has been issued. The rest is detailed. We want to get our farmers, we'll get our farmers across the country, micro, small, medium, large farmers. I see some of my friends here. We are asking you, all of us farmers, depending on where our properties are located, if we have water bodies where we are, working with you in an organized way, not by conscription, but by necessity, will be required to plant now, more crop, now, yesterday. To irrigate, if your farm has a damper portion, let's utilize the dam to produce food. And we work together in that direction. The Ministry of Community Development, I see the minister is here, and Social Welfare, Community Development and Social Welfare, plus our partners in that space, will be required to enhance the social support problems to the vulnerable families. We have an ordinary ongoing social support programs, those who continue, but in these 78 or so districts or more, as I said, we will be looking at additional support to the families that have been afflicted by this drought. I think that comes without hesitation and without questions. The Food Reserve Agency will enhance community cells, maize and other food cells, working with DMMU into the communities, focusing on the data that we have collected, using the data that we have collected, those areas that are affected the most, or the worst. That's a guidance to the Food Reserve Agents, and indeed any other partners that will come to the table. So therefore, we call upon our partners, cooperating partners, local and international. Here I'm talking about the business community as well, so I'm saying local and international partners to avail any excess food they may have, and other foods beyond maize. Here when we say food, we mean wunga, we mean shima ugari, as others will call it. But this time we can't have a large area of just shima. Any other support that can be availed will be highly appreciated and will be received with grace, so we can provide relief to our fellow citizens. We are pleased and thankful at this early stage with early engagements that some partners have already extended their willingness, their commitment to support, even before today's declaration. And I want to embarrass any of them, but I think it's fair I mention, because last night I engaged some of them, such as the British, who were very clear that they are on board. The UN system, who were very clear that they are on board. The World Bank Group also made the same indication, and indeed others that are clear that support from them will come. But charity begins at home. We ourselves as a treasury, as a people, have to do certain things. And I'll be saying them just now, one of the key things that we're going to do. We call upon, because of this situation we face, I made a comment not long ago about debt restructuring. So I want to use this opportunity to call on our official creditors. Our private creditors, I know we've made a lot of progress with official creditors, and we thank all of those countries that we've reached consensus with. But some is really just technical issues or process, but by and large we've reached consensus with official creditors. But working with official creditors, with whom we want to put to bed all outstanding bits and pieces, we would like to invite also our private creditors, such as the bondholders, to come to the table to allow us to put to bed fully, not partially, the Zambia debt restructuring project, on which we have spent a lot of time. The Minister of Finance knows, occupies a lot of our time since we took office. We inherited a dramatic and tremendous debt burden. But we worked so hard, Zambia has fulfilled its commitments under a global framework called the G20. And now is the time to close this process. If the process doesn't close, it's not just an indictment on Zambia. It's an indictment on the global system. We signed up the global system. The global system has delivered. We have done our part. Because closure is essential now so that we can bring stability in our markets, including financial markets. Certainty is important in any economic management situation. So this will help to add on to certainty. So we call upon our colleagues to do what is necessary. We are directing that all resources that are generated for this core, this declaration of disaster and emergency, will be applied for the intended purposes. There will be accountability here. As always, since we took office, we've been talking about accountability. Prudence, use of resources, shifting resources away from consumption expenditure. More to needy areas like this now than ever before. And we'll be open, open books, partners who want to contribute to ensuring that systems are in place in addition to what we have already as a country. And that's why I remember we've been able to achieve a better rating on the perception of corruption in our country. I just thought that it was just a story. It's not a story. It's the measures we've been putting in place. Prudence measures, fight against corruption. Any of colleagues that will be found wanting in this area, a moral area of abusing resources meant for the needy, you are on your own. You are truly on your own. And I want to remind fellow citizens, starting in March with the three pieces of legislation that we passed in the last meeting of parliament, the Chief Justice has issued practice guidelines in accordance to the legal requirements that take effect first of March that all financial and economic crimes will be prosecuted within five months. That is new. We've been working behind the scenes. So I'm sending a signal. There will be nothing like prosecution taking 20 years. It will be done within five months. You can make your own interpretation. But why do you want to be found in that situation if you're a decent citizen and you are affected by what has happened with this trust? Some family member is hating someone. This is not going to be accepted, tolerated. As I said, we invite our stakeholders, partners, civil society, church, anyone else, anyone else to work on these control measures, accountability measures, to suggest at an early stage so that we are not reactive, we want to be proactive. We have systems already. There's no question about it. I don't want someone to misinterpret this statement, that there are no systems. But we are always open to suggestions. Long term measures, we shall enhance water harvesting mechanisms going forward to enable precision irrigation to take place. We shall enhance, redouble, aggressively investment in the water harvesting area. We've been talking about it. I think what is saying, hey, you're sitting on what should have been done long time ago as a country. We still have some surface water, underground water. All we need now is to accelerate investments in this area. And we should be able to irrigate. We want to stimulate agricultural production. Specifically, let me be specific in this area, we will aggressively, as I said, shift resources from consumption, wastage, travel, business class, secretary cabinet. I still hear that people want to travel business class. From Lusaka to Johannesburg, business class. For one hour, 40 minutes. We sit on our stools, we villagers for three hours. What's wrong with the economy ticket for one hour, one hour, 40 minutes? This is what I call pretence, pretentious behavior. For one hour, 40 minutes, you want to feel rich. Just for one hour, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. That's cheating. There will be no more of such things, including unnecessary travel, size of delegations. I sent this signal to my cabinet colleagues yesterday in the cabinet meeting. I've made it official today. We've made it official today. Resources are limited. The question is that how do we utilize the limited resources? This is where the resources will go and other essential areas. We want to look at the genetics in agriculture, my fellow farmers. Draught resistant crops, higher yielding varieties. Wherever they are, as long as they don't have impurities, we are advancing seed production in this country already. So we shall maximize that. Technology, as I said, precision irrigation. You won't believe it, just an hour ago, I was talking to the President of Israel and he too, instantly on the phone, said he will make sure that the specialized team in water, harvest and irrigation will be dispatched to our country immediately, even though they are at war. I think this is what friendship is all about. And what about us who are here? Do we wait for people at war to assist us? No. We need the assistance but the child begins at home. We have sung the story of productivity for so long. We need to increase our productivity. Less than three tons per hectare is unacceptable going forward. It has to be ten, nine, eight, ten tons per hectare of maize. And with irrigation, it will be at least two crops a year. In the same hectares, it means we will move to 18 to 20 tons per one hectare. That we work on as farmers. We work together in this space to make sure that happens. We will definitely enhance the cleanup of FISIP, Ministers of Agriculture. We cannot tolerate the inefficiencies in FISIP anymore, abuse in FISIP anymore, including FISIP producers to make some of their production available for retention for their own consumption. When I grew up in the village, we used to have maize bands. One season of drought was not an issue, because we had enough maize thought for two or three seasons. All that has been wiped out by bad behavior of consumption, mind, luxury, and Czech aleco, because something that we must return to household storage, plus the excess beings available to FRI. Because that means technically it belongs to government. Technically. But we are also going to ensure that we provide, we expand the agricultural credit window, which we have been talking about for a long time. Mechanization, which we went to this morning. As you know, this fellow talking here, from early on from opposition, we talked about the expanded agricultural program. FISIP is not agriculture, but expanded comprehensive agricultural program. So this is it. We are on it now. Code is sending a signature to us. I already talked about productivity. I will not repeat that. We will accelerate the development of alternative energy sources. I mentioned it already. Solar wind, others, and no energy source will be ignored. Because if we do ignore, we cannot develop Mi'ngomba project. The best old body we have, we can't develop it. If we don't bring other energy sources, because it needs energy, simple, straight, and we want to be understood by our friends in the global community. That is a matter of survival now for us. It's not just food security, energy security is now national security at stake. To achieve these measures, we shall therefore realign amongst other measures. We shall realign the 2024 national budget, which parliament approved. That work begins yesterday to realign our national budget. You heard what I said, move money away from business class travel, from large delegations, from workshop upon workshop to plan the next workshop. All that money will be moved away from there and taken into this area. The immediate feeding of our people, plus turning into agriculture anchored on irrigation. Egypt produces a lot of food in the desert. Only one river, the Nauri River. What about our Kahfue, Zambezi, Chambeshi, Lukulu, Luangwa? What about Lake Muero, Banguelu? What about all those bodies? This is a time we shall bring about the revolution which generations before us did not want to do. This is it, it's no choice. So, I've already chatted with the Minister of Finance. What I'm saying here, I've already engaged the cap of stake orders. These measures are by no means exhausting, as I said. Your government commits to adopting and enhancing responses as the situation evolves. Countrymen and women, our youth. The disaster and emergency is serious and the government is responding urgently with the uttermost dedication and, I must say, as a united team. More partial processes need to be holistic, all of us. As the mix I see here, all of us will have to be involved. As a resilient and resourceful nation, we will stand together in unity and solidarity as one people and together we shall overcome. We will work, let me be specific, we will work with the farmers, Z-Farmers. All of the farmers, micro, small, medium, my Mukusi friend, large, I know your capacity and your center peoples. I mentioned already, they'll be brought to bear. No arm-twisting, but working together is a matter of necessity. So farmers, input suppliers could be seed, could be fertilizer, could be equipment, we'll work with you. Grain traders, did I say grain trader here? Thank you for being present. Millers, I see the master miller or master millers there. You too will work with you. After all, we are already working together on the prices of miller men. Thank you for going to Kazungula Bridge with a team. I follow things that go on in this country. One must have the pulse of the nation, otherwise you are lost. Academics, I hope there are some here, professionals, not just in government, outside government. Since I took office, I've noted attendance where we in government think that we know better than everybody else. That's not true. Citizens who are experts in their own right, but they don't work for government, have to come to the table. And they must be welcomed and accommodated. International experts equally. We are a global village. Regulators, Zema, Zema, you can't sit on water rights anymore. Zema, you can't take 18 months anymore to assess a project. We'll be sitting in some work stream somewhere. PPDF, naturally, PDU, naturally, all the other facets that have already been working together. Will we be categorized? The church. The church will work with the church without being selective of which church. All the churches, the Board of Christ is one. We don't want to get into the debate of which church is more important than the other. No, all the churches. Even as the late satyr used to say, the husband and wife churches, those are okay as well. They look after their family, their members who listen to them. And through them, who will appeal to their members. This is serious. This is serious. Earlier touched on civil society, unions, traditional leaders for that matter. Political parties. Political parties. This is not a time for political competition. We will do that in 2026. For now, we have to work together. If there's a time we needed to work together, it is now. And let me just say, others, I need to send a message to our resilient farmers throughout our land. I have been watching how you are reacting to these droughts. I have been following. We want to express our gratitude, first for heeding our core to produce more food. Truly, even saloon workers or operators, one minister told me, she went to a saloon and the saloon workers, for the first time the saloon she has gone to for 15 years, first time they were talking about their echo of maize. Thank you to all of you who responded to that call, took out some food and other crops. But nature had its own issues. But your unwavering commitment to combat the El Nino situation through inventive irrigation methods, which I've never seen before. We've seen ox-drawn transportational, just 20 litres, 80 litres, to just go and take one or two lines to save some crop. What about us? We will bear us trying to save just maybe 100 stocks. We are following with our measurement. This is truly commendable and quite simply heroic. Thank you for your efforts. Do you have our full support now going forward? You have our full support. Your resilience and bravery is profound. It's inspirational. It's motivating to all of us. To our valued global community and co-operating partners, we appreciate your prompt response, as I've indicated already. Timely response, but some who have been clear to me and to my colleagues, they are already providing substantive support ahead of today's announcement. This is commendable indeed. This is commendable indeed. But as I said, chariot begins at home. We ourselves must realign resources into this agenda. In thanking our partners, we would like you to extend our appreciation, our thanks to your governments, to your nationals. I know for the sins of my past, when a country donates to another country, that donation has come from citizens of that country. So we must thank the citizens of those countries. But to reiterate what I said already, just a few minutes ago, let us work together. Church, traditional leaders, civil society, organizations, farmers, unions, all of us political parties in our mitigation efforts against this challenge. From now onwards and following this announcement, we will pull together multidisciplinary teams, including, as I said, in government and those from outside government, private sector, under specific work streams to comprehensively and effectively respond to this disaster and the ledges. One team approach, one zombie, one nation. No one's excluded from this. All of us. For us, the work begins yesterday. Now, may God bless you all. May God bless our country. I thank you for your kind attention.