The Victoria falls in the drought, the water goes out

At the Victoria Falls in northwestern Zimbabwe, usually thunderous masses of water rush into the depths. The Zambezi River is one hundred meters deep here. For decades, the widest waterfall in the world has attracted millions of tourists to Zimbabwe and Zambia. But a century of drought has left the region's most important tourist attraction to a trickle.

The images stir up fears that climate change could dry up the Victoria Falls forever. That the amount of water decreases during the dry season, according to the authorities of the country is normal. But this year, there has been an unprecedented drop in water level at Victoria Falls, which is twice as high and one and a half times as wide as the Niagara Falls between the US and Canada.

"We see this for the first time"

On the ground, the mood is depressed. "In previous years, it did not have that scale during the drought," says Dominic Nyambe, a 30-year-old craft salesman. He has his shop in Livingstone on Zambian side of the falls. "We see it that way for the first time." If the tourists should stay away now, he fears for his business.

See here two shots of December 4, 2009 in comparison with recorded images from January 17, 2019:

Mike Hutchings / Reuters

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The world leaders are currently meeting in Madrid for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. However, southern Africa is already suffering from the effects of climate change in many places. In Zambia extreme drought prevails. In neighboring Zimbabwe, the drought has triggered the worst hunger crisis in ten years. Millions of people have to be fed with food imports, and in many places they also lack water.

Fear of the monsoon after the drought

Zambia and Zimbabwe are also experiencing power outages due to water scarcity, as the hydroelectric power plant on the Kariba Dam, upstream of the falls, is no longer adequately fed. Data from the Zambian River Authority show that the flow is as low as it has been since 1995. The country's president, Edgar Lungu, spoke of "a clear reminder of what climate change means to our environment."

Scientists are reluctant to blame climate change alone for the extreme sinking of the Zambezi, as there are always fluctuations. According to hydrologist Harald Kling, developments over decades are more meaningful than snapshots of individual years.

Mike Hutchings / Reuters

A few tourists are still there: The environment is already largely dried up

But Kling also watches the development with concern. Surprisingly, the droughts in the Sambesibecken pile up so much: The last dry year so far was only three years ago.

Richard Beilfuss, from the International Crane Foundation, who has been involved with nature on the Zambezi River for decades, is already thinking ahead. He fears that the drought could now delay the monsoon - which could bring even more heavy rainfall in even less time.