EL NINO MAY RETURN IN JULY

EZULWINI – There is a possibility that the drought that led to widespread crop failure, poor harvest and significant loss of livelihoods, could come back to haunt the SADC region.

This follows that the majority of forecasting models from international climate centres are predicting El Nino conditions to become most likely from around July this year.
This is according to the draft annotated agenda that was presented yesterday during the opening of the joint extraordinary meeting for SADC ministers responsible for agriculture, food security, fisheries and aquaculture taking place at the Sibane Hotel.

El Nino is the irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic change which sometimes causes catastrophic weather changes.
According to the minutes of the agenda, the El Nino conditions are more likely to persist for the remainder of the year starting around July.
However, it was noted that this was a forecast predicted very early, which meant that it was liable to change over the coming months, with member States advised of the need to continue monitoring the condition’s evolution and further start contingency planning in case the prediction materialises.

Vulnerability assessments and analysis indicated that nearly 40 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance, with around 23 million requiring immediate help as of June 2016 in the SADC region. El Nino led to the country receiving little rainfall and this led to farmers returning with nothing from the fields and loss of cattle.

The drought also left dams around the country with no water. Hawane Dam was at one point at zero per cent, leading to a four-day water rationing in Mbabane.
About 30 000 cattle were killed in the country due to the harsh weather conditions of El Nino.
South Africa declared drought disaster in all provinces except Gauteng, while Mozambique declared an institutional red alert.

Effects of the drought included, among others, the fact that cereal harvest assessments indicated nearly 2.1 million tonnes regional shortfall in production.
This meant that a significant amount of cereals had to be imported into the region to cover the needs. Furthermore, an estimated 1.66 million tonnes of maize was required for immediate food assistance during the mentioned period, while livestock, a key source of livelihoods for many communities, were also significantly impacted by the drought.

Planting of crops was delayed by over two months in some cases due to the late onset of the rains, while in some areas like some parts of South Africa, planting was abandoned altogether.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: