Beer, wine and spirits are no doubt anchors of Zimbabwe social life. Whether you enjoy your ice cold beer listening to your jazz music on the other side of Samora or waiting on your barbeque at kwaMereki, a few understand the impacts that alcohol consumption can have to our planet.
When you make your way to your favorite liquor store and purchase that expensive Sweet red wine bottle, do you know how that bottle got to the shop all the way from South Africa?, and how much grapes were grown and harvested? Well, you need about 39 to 41kg of fresh grapes to make only about 19 litres of wine equivalent to only 25 bottles. Your liquor supplier would have stocked a hundred boxes for the customers meaning more grapes planted, more fertilizers used and more soil contamination. Generally, production of alcohol involves growing of the ingredients like grains for your lagers, sugar cane for your spirits, potatoes. These require a significant amount of water, fertilizers, land and use of machinery which then contributes to the environmental problems. These include water scarcity, soil contamination through the use of fertilizers, noise pollution from the machines and oil spillages from machinery which pollute our soils.
There has also been an alarming indication of improper disposal of the empty alcohol cans all around the country. Millions of alcohol cans are disposed into our environment every now and then causing land pollution. However, there have been efforts to separate and encourage recycling of these cans. Is it being done at your favourite watering hole? If not, then make use of the suggestion box.
For every bottle of tequila you have downed at your friend’s birthday celebration, 10 litres of acidic waste water is produced and disposed contaminating the soil and water. Tequila is a product that can only be produced in Mexico, scotch whiskey can only be made in Scotland, yet both are readily available in all your liquor stores in Zimbabwe. This means the physical transport costs that come with distributing alcohol all over the world should be looked at, the large amounts of energy (fuels) used on trucks and their refrigerators which cause emission of greenhouse gases, leading to climate change.
Alcohol consumption has been part of human culture and can be traced back to 700 B.C. However, it is very important we note that it’s not just a bad hangover but it also brings about negative impacts on the environment.
