El Niño: heavy rains, flooding, here; dry spells, severe droughts, there

DAR ES SALAAM: THE whole country is in the El Niño preparedness mode, a major worry being about the adverse outcomes of heavy rains and flooding.

Let us get the feel from Dodoma Region, by reading a news item titled: “RC urges residents to take precautions against El Niño”, in which, the lady Regional Commissioner is reported upon: “Dodoma Regional Commissioner RS has urged residents of Kondoa to take early precautions against heavy rains expected in various parts of the country, ‘particularly those living in valleys and other flood prone areas’”.

(Custodian 8 October, page 4) The above quotation suffers from syntax short comings. In case you have forgotten, syntax is the set of rules that govern how words, phrases and clauses are arranged to form well-formed sentences in a language.

One general rule is that, words describing nouns should be positioned as near as possible, to the subject that is being qualified.

In the above quotation of what the RC said, the phrase: “particularly those living in valleys and other flood-prone areas” should be positioned close to those “Kondoa residents”. Otherwise, the sentence may lose meaning.

Here is a recommended re-write: “Dodoma Regional Commissioner, RS, has urged residents of Kondoa, ‘particularly those living in valleys and other flood-prone areas’, to take early precautions against heavy rains expected in various parts of the country”.

Hopefully, you have noted the re-arrangement of the words. Language experts also advise against using similar, or near-similar words, close to each other, in a sentence.

The RC is quoted to have stressed that: “those living in risky areas should ‘relocate’ to safer ‘locations’ before heavy rains begin”.

Here, “relocate” and “locations” are very close, similarly sounding, cousins. How about changing: “relocate” to “move to”?

The sentence could then take the following form: “those living in risky areas should ‘move to’ safer ‘locations’ before heavy rains begin”.

By way of expanding our knowledge, we may note that El Niño does not always mean more rain.

ALSO READ: TMA cherishes its weather accuracy as 25 Tanzanian regions see heavy rains

While it causes heavy rainfall and flooding in some regions, it triggers severe droughts, dry spells and reduced rainfall in many other parts of the world.

We are in the region where the expected Niño will cause heavy rains and floods. Precautions, particularly, adequate and functioning drains, are necessary.

It is good writing practice to ensure that our readers are not left in doubt, or guessing about what we want to convey to them.

Take this quotation about more of what the Dodoma RC did: “During the tour, she inspected construction of the Itaswi dam, in Itaswi Ward, ‘a 5.7 billion project aimed at improving water availability for residents”.

“A 5.7 ‘what’ billion project”? Tshilings? USdollars? Litres of water? You should not leave the reader guessing, Mr Writer.

“Former PM Pinda urges youth to seize opportunities in ecological agriculture”, writes The Custodians’ correspondent, again, from Dodoma.

The retired PM is quoted as urging the youth: “to invest their time, energy ‘and resources’ in building sustainable food systems, ‘raising incomes’, and improving community livelihoods”. The implication here is that “time” and energy” are not included in “resources.

That is not the case. According to Dictionay.com, a resource is: “any physical item, natural substance, financial asset, or human skill that can be used to meet a need, complete a task, or achieve a goal”.

Time and energy are included in resources. To avoid ambiguity, we can add a phrase: “and other”, before resources.

The retired PM will be quoted as having urged the youth: “to invest their time, energy ‘and other resources’ in building sustainable food systems, generating incomes, and improving community livelihoods”.

On the Custodian’s Sports page, the Singida Black Stars CEO, Ms TK, is quoted as saying that her club engages in selling and buying players: “If there is any club that comes to us and wants a player, we sit at the table. Any club we can sell that player”.

“Any club we can sell that player”? How about saying: “We can sell that player to any club”? Have a lovely weekend, El Niño, or, No El Niño, as long as you take precautions.

lusuggakironde@gmail. com.