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Deadly grip of KZN drought

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Gertrude Siwela lines up containers alongside those of other community members as they wait for a water tanker. Picture: Tebogo Letsie
Gertrude Siwela lines up containers alongside those of other community members as they wait for a water tanker. Picture: Tebogo Letsie

Two wizened and ragged men – Khethwa Shezi (67) and Bhekinkosi Mbatha (69) – sit forlornly under the bridge running across the Black Umfolozi River in KwaZulu-Natal.

They rest in the shade of the river bed without fear of drowning. This is because the river, near the small town of Nongoma, is dry. The White Umfolozi River in the south, near Ulundi, is also dry.

The men’s emaciated cattle and their six dogs lie on the sand next to them – the parched animals probably hoping their human owners can perform miracles and bring back water to the once swiftly flowing river. The animals, especially the cattle, are skinny from a lack of water and fertile grass to eat.

An offensive smell emanates from under the bridge. The carcass of a cow that hasn’t survived the severe drought that has struck northern KwaZulu-Natal is rotting just a stone’s throw away. Another cow lies on the river bank gasping for breath.

“The cattle have become our friends these days. We hug and talk to them,” says Shezi as he strokes a cow. “When I take my cane knife and go to the trees, they follow and walk next to me because they know I will be chopping down the tree branches for them to eat the leaves.”

The land has become arid, a desert of sorts. Animals are literally licking the dry soil to find shrubs to feed on. The thorny shrubs and trees on the Black Umfolozi’s banks have survived, fed by underground water.

Shezi and Mbatha have been at the river since dawn. They have dug two pits in the sand to get underground water for their cattle to drink and for their households to use. They have put a hollow container to keep the animals away from the other pit they have dug, so that when villagers come with wheelbarrows to collect water, it is not polluted by animals.

Two of Shezi’s cattle have died and he has been left with five. Mbatha has lost three cattle from a herd of eight. These subsistence farmers are worried because the drought is literally killing their livelihood.

“I have never seen something like this in all the years I have spent here,” says Mbatha. “My wife has abandoned her garden at home because the vegetables are dying … there is no water.”

All the two men want is a machine that can dig a deeper pit to extract more underground water and for rain clouds to release a downpour.

Ten dams in the Zululand district municipal area are dry and about 150 000 households now depend on the Pongola Dam, which is 45% full.

All of this is testimony to the devastating drought that has hit northern KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Limpopo, the Free State, North West, the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

The culprit is El Niño, a phenomenon that occurs when water in the eastern equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average. This affects weather conditions around the world and curtails summer rainfall.

Unless it rains soon, the situation will cripple small-scale and large farmers even more. With farmers forced to seek alternative sources of water at a cost, the shortage of water will have an effect on food production and food prices.

Some households in Gauteng and in other provinces have already had water restrictions imposed on them.

The water affairs department has allocated R352 million for drought relief in KwaZulu-Natal. This mainly goes to water tankers that supply schools, hospitals, clinics and households.

The SA Weather Service has said that the July 2014 to June 2015 season has been the driest in the country in the past five years.

“However, KwaZulu-Natal experienced its driest season on record. In the last four seasons, North West experienced dry to extremely dry conditions,” says weather specialist Elsa de Jager.

Further north of Umfolozi, in Kwadenge village, throngs of people wait at various points with their containers to fill them up whenever trucks from the Zululand district bring water. But the trucks have been prioritising clinics, correctional services and schools.

Grey-haired Siphosemfene Mabanga (55) shouts at a water tanker driver, while a group of women stand under a tree. “You guys start by supplying your girlfriends. People have been waiting here since morning.”

Sometimes the trucks arrive here; sometimes they do not. When they do not come, the villagers have no choice but to walk about 5km to the Vuma Dam water treatment plant where the trucks fill up. Some people go to a nearby river to dig for underground water or hire a van at R80 for a 25 litre container, an amount that many can’t afford.

Gertrude Siwela (55) says the water tankers have come to her waiting point only twice since the water shortages worsened about four months ago, but they still wait. On this day, she had walked 6km to the treatment plant to fetch water. “It’s a struggle every day,” she adds.

Sphamandla Ntombela, member of the mayoral committee in the Zululand District Municipality, who is responsible for water, says the municipality does not know what will happen if the Pongola Dam also dries up.

“We have more than 50 trucks and they cannot supply the whole area. We need 30 more. We can understand the community’s complaints that they don’t get water. Ulundi has 12 trucks supplying 48 000 households in 24 wards. That’s not enough,” says Ntombela.

“If it doesn’t rain before December, I’m afraid about what will happen.”

Click here for more pictures of the drought in KZN

Drought in Numbers

100 000 – Number of farm animals that have died in KwaZulu-Natal as a result of the drought

R14.7 million – The amount the KwaZulu-Natal department of agriculture has allocated for drought relief to farmers

R352 million – The amount the department of water affairs and sanitation has allocated to KwaZulu-Natal for drought relief

6 500 – Rural communities experiencing water shortages in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West

178 – Water sources affected by the drought nationally, which serve 2.7 million people

Average dam levels per province

KwaZulu-Natal – 58%

Eastern Cape – 78%

Free State – 67%

Limpopo – 71%

Mpumalanga – 70%

North West – 53%

Western Cape – 70%

Northern Cape – the province largely depends on groundwater

Gauteng – 84%

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