Drought emergency hits food security

Drought has hit Swaziland and threatens zero crop yields in a quarter of the country, humanitarian agencies are reporting. "The current serious drought, which seems to be the worst in recorded history, threatens severely diminished harvests and serious water shortages in large parts of the kingdom," Ben Nsibandze, chairman of the National Disaster Relief Task Force, said in a statement. The task force is assembling government bodies and NGOs in the meteorological, agricultural and humanitarian assistance fields this week for planning sessions to deal with what Nsibandze called an "unfolding emergency". The eastern lowveld has suffered diminished rainfall for a decade, and has not recovered from a prolonged drought in 1992-1994 that rendered much of the eastern Lubombo Region uninhabitable. Despite some government studies that suggest the Lubombo area is not suitable for subsistence farming, several hundred thousand Swazis continue to live there on communal Swazi Nation Land under chiefs appointed by King Mswati. They depend on rainfall to nourish their crops. "This is the heart of our emergency relief operations. Virtually all of the people in this area have experienced crop failures, and are dependant on food aid," said Sarah Laughton, emergency relief coordinator for the World Food Programme's (WFP) Swaziland operations. The revived drought will deepen residents' food aid dependency, humanitarian workers said as they prepare a January census of those in need. In September, WFP projected that 243,000 vulnerable Swazis would be receiving food relief, out of a national population of 950,000. As Swazis try to cope with the crisis they have begun selling their cattle before they succumb to thirst, resulting in falling livestock prices. "Swazis hate to part with their cattle. But they remember '92, the last time so many rivers dried up. Cattle carcasses were everywhere, especially in the east and south," said Amos Dlamini, a butcher in the commercial city of Manzini. Swaziland's major rivers continue to flow, though at capacities 40 percent to 70 percent below normal, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. Small streams and dams have, however, evaporated. Water levels have dropped at Hawane and Ngwenya dams, which provides water to the capital Mbabane, Lupholo dam, which supplies Manzini, and Maguga dam, the water supply for the northern town of Pigg's Peak. The Swaziland Water Services Corporation warns of water rationing in those urban centres by next month if dam levels do not rise. Water rationing is already in effect in the eastern provincial capital Siteki. A hot spring season was followed by two weeks of high temperatures and low rainfall in December. Coinciding with the first appearance of young maize plants, the Swazi staple food, the heat wave was seen by the disaster relief task force as a harbinger of crop problems ahead. The drought belt, extending from the Lavumisa border post with South Africa to the southeast, was also hit by windstorms this week causing R4 million (US $615,000) in damage, according to local officials. "Since the weekend, about 1,000 people, mostly children, have been living on little more than water," area MP Doward Sihlongonyane told reporters outside the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which coordinates disaster relief in rural areas. Temporary shelter is required for 100 families whose homesteads were destroyed and belongings scattered by the windstorms, Sihlongonyane said. King Mswati this week began the sacred Incwala rituals, a national dance in which the ancestral spirits (emadloti) are petitioned to bring good rains. The traditional ceremonies have been expanded this year, palace sources said.