Drought disaster looming

2004-01-04 21:46

Johan Eybers and Annemarie van Wyk

Johannesburg - South Africa is heading for a disaster in the new year because of the drought.

Emergency measures have already been introduced to ensure that millions of people have enough water to survive.

The levels of some dams have dropped to under 20% while the ground water table has dropped by as much as 30m.

Government has set aside R109m for emergency water supplies because.

In rural areas without dams, government has to provide truck in water and sink new, deeper boreholes to provide drinking water.

Tanked water is provided to about 3.5 million South Africans. In some rural areas, government is also distributing food parcels.

More than 100 000 farm workers could lose their jobs if it does not rain soon.

An estimated 40 000 head of livestock have died because of the drought.

Water restrictions, which have a negative influence on the agricultural sector in particular, have already been imposed in several districts. Farmers have been forced to stop irrigating their crops to ensure that enough water is available for domestic use.

Maize farmers in the eastern parts of the Highveld have a slim chance of planting their maize crops in time. Farmers in the Free State need rain within the next two weeks to be able to start planting.

Thousands of stock farmers in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal will have to slaughter their livestock en masse because there is no grazing left.

Japie Grobler, president of AgriSA, said farmers in the summer rainfall areas of Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West, parts of the southern Free State, the Northern cape and Eastern Cape were also suffering because of the drought.

"Where farmers did sow, the seedlings are scorched by the searing heat.

"If it doesn't rain soon, we have a huge crisis looming."

Amelius Muller, acting deputy director of water affairs and agriculture, said the parts suffering the most were rural areas without dams.

"This is where government is supplying emergency water. People here normally use barely 30 litres a day and it is impossible to further limit their usage. That is why agricultural use have to be restricted."

He said water levels were down 30% on average from the previous year, but were still 20% higher than the levels during the droughts of 1983 and 1992. "Then the average level of dams was 40% and now it is 60%."

- Rapport