The meteorological department has announced that the El Nino phenomenon which has been affecting the country’s weather conditions is “now”over.
El Nino   is a weather pattern which recurs every two to seven years.
The unfavorable weather pattern  was not affecting Zimbabwe alone but  most parts of the region and caused severe drought bringing hardship to at least 4 million people in the country and 50 million in the region.
The poor weather conditions, including erratic rainfall and long dry spells, have contributed to large-scale crop failure and livestock deaths across the country.
El Nino caused abrupt changes in the weather  and shortened  the rainfall season from the normal 6 months to  3 months.
According to weather experts the region as a result of the Eli Nino received lowest level rainfall for those three months in 30 years.
This winter El Nino was particularly intense and long-lasting, more so than at any other time in the last 35 years.
Addressing delegates attending the second multi-stakeholder consultative meeting which was jointly hosted by the office of the President and cabinet and the United Nations in Harare,head of the Zimbabwe meteorological department Dr Amos Makarau said the peak of the Eli Nino phenomenon is over.
“As  18^th March and now we can smile again and we can now look forward to a better situation. We can safely say that the Eli Nino is now history,” said Makarau.
“But we still have some areas where rainfall is still very low and this unfortunate as we are having only two more weeks to go before the rain ends”.