New measures to counter environmental degradation

Swazi authorities face a tough challenge as the government steps up efforts to arrest environmental degradation. More than 80 percent of the people are engaged in subsistence agriculture, in a country faced with growing environmental concerns, including deforestation, loss of biodiversity and soil erosion. Irma Allen, the recently appointed director of the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA), told IRIN much of the damage could be reversed if environmental policing were decentralised, and efforts to raise ecological awareness among local communities were increased. "Environment involves everybody; everyone has to do his or her own part. We need to have more communication," said Allen. The SEA recently approved an action plan focusing on biodiversity, waste management, pollution control and environmental education. Swaziland has a raft of legislation specifically aimed at improving environmental preservation, but Allen noted that the support of local communities was critical to effective implementation of the laws. "The action plan is in place, but it is up to individual constituencies to do the implementation. Each will do so in their own way," she commented. SEA 'task forces' are to be dispatched to each of the country's four regions to consult with traditional leadership, NGOs and the private sector, in the hope that broad consultation will result in greater local ownership of environmentally friendly policies. "Every region is unique: there is a great difference between mountainous northern Hhohho and the dry flat eastern lowveld; environmental problems are not all the same, though the people of each region can still look at themselves through the main issues of biodiversity, waste management, environmental management, and the others," Allen pointed out. But as the government gears itself up for the challenge ahead, poor rural communities are finding that they are ill-equipped to contribute to the collective effort. Nthando Mavuso's small farm, some 40 km northeast of the central commercial town of Manzini, has had its fair share of natural and man-made calamities. "It has been like a curse: the hills gave way, wrecking my buildings; the crops don't grow, and my wife must go further and further to fetch water," Nthando told IRIN. Recurring drought conditions have meant that she has to walk three km every day to the Mbuluzi River, where the water quality is questionable: cows defecate while crossing it and women use detergents when washing their clothes in its flow. "The cattle and goats are so many - they ate up all the grass; when the rains came, the hill collapsed into my kraal. Then the drought came, and this month big veld fires came," the 45-year-old father of four explained. The Mavuso family know they should boil the water before drinking it, but point out that firewood in the area is scarce: buganu trees are the only indigenous ones left in the area, and the local community uses the fruit for brewing an alcoholic drink. In urban areas the situation is equally bleak. Swaziland has a relatively small population compared to its neighbours, but migration has been rapid and the resource-strapped government has been unable to provide adequate social services to a growing urban population, many of whom find shelter in informal settlements. Sonnyboy Ngwenya, a volunteer with the local Yongwe Nawe conservation group said: "We are also seeing industrial pollution: rivers are used to dispose of toxic wastes. This is new - a by-product of industrialisation."