Drought disaster looms
2003-10-02 08:15
Pretoria - The country's disaster management programme must receive urgent attention because of drought conditions throughout South Africa.
This was the view expressed by Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza at an agriculture forecast conference in Pretoria on Tuesday.
She says disaster management in most provinces, as well as municipal areas, should be improved. The areas of Limpopo, Mpumalangda, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern and Western Cape are suffering most severely from the effects of the drought. Animals are dying and dam levels are dropping.
The senior manager of the directorate of agriculture risk management, Ben Kgakatsi, says climate prediction reports are sent to the provinces every month. The reports also contain advice to farmers.
He sounded a warning to farmers that they might not receive drought aid if they didn't follow the advice.
This follows after the department of agriculture and land affairs earmarked several million rand for drought aid to Limpopo. Seven districts in the province have been declared drought areas. Beeld reported last week that about R6m will be used to drill boreholes in the drought-stricken province.
An additional R17m is needed to repair existing boreholes. Earlier this year emerging farmers received R6m to assist them in buying fodder.
The department of agriculture says another R2.5m is needed to help emerging farmers and R86m to help commercial farmers.
Dries Liebenberg reports that the Umfolozi river near St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal has dried up. The most severe drought-stricken areas include the area between Richards Bay and the Mozambican border, as well as Zululand. Some farmers have been supplying fodder to their animals for the past two years.
Linda de Nysschen reports that the situation in Mpumalanga is miserable, because virtually not one single farm dam has any water. The eastern high veld area of Mpumalanga has virtually no grazing, underground water has dried up and fruit farmers in the Lowveld are experiencing harvest failures.
Lieze du Preez reports that although the drought in the North West province hasn't had a marked influence on agricultural prospects, farmers are tense about developments during the next two weeks, after which the situation will become critical if no rain falls.
The levels of the Vaal and Bloemhof dams, the largest water systems in the North West, are much lower now compared to the corresponding period last year. The smaller dams are nearly full. In October last year the Vaaldam had 90.5% water compared to 56.18% now. In October last year the Bloemhof dam had 94.18% water compared to 45.35% now.
Willie Liebenberg of the department of water affairs says water restrictions may be imposed if it doesn't rain soon.