On a continent plagued by droughts and floods, an unremarked revolution is under way in the arid Southern Province of Zambia where 58-year-old Munalula Mate has harnessed the internet to help forecast and prevent natural disasters. (..) "Early warning of the flooding of the Zambezi River during the rainy season saved many lives," says Stephen Campbell of Computer Aid International. "And aid workers for the World Food Programme in the Southern Province say that the speed with which the Department of Meteorology predicted the worst-affected areas during recent droughts helped them channel aid more quickly to those areas."