The current weather patterns in the region can be attributed to a combination of this year’s “intense” El Niño event and rising climate change. El Niño events are natural occurrences that happen every two to seven years and signal a warming of the Pacific Ocean, which then affects weather patterns across the world.
Four out of nine provinces in South Africa have already been marked as drought “hotspots” with water usage being rationed as a precautionary measure amid rising temperatures. Communities in rural areas are most affected and now residents have to collect water once a day in buckets and bottles to get by.
On farms large patches of dry land and struggling cattle can be seen under the blistering sun. Currently, some farmers are relying on their own boreholes for water.
Talent Cele, 27, a farm owner in KwaZulu Natal has been so badly affected by the drought that he has had to sell off some of his cattle to ensure the survival of his remaining herd.
“We have no choice, it’s just to limit the number of cattle we have on the farm, so by doing that we have to what? Sell and maintain a certain number that we can handle. Other than that cattle are just going to be dying all over the place,” he said.
The last three months of the year are usually southern Africa’s rainy season, in which farmers begin to till their land to plant summer crops, particularly maize; a staple food for the region. That window is closing fast with no rain forecast endangering the region’s food security.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that close to 27 million people in the region could go hungry if the drought persists.
According to Francois Engelbrecht, climate modeler and researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa current weather climate conditions are a clear reflection of global warming.
“During this specific year of 2015 we are looking at the combined effects of climate change and an El Niño event. So 2015 is in fact the warmest year ever recorded by human in about 150 years of taking measurements and, in fact, nine of the 10 warmest years ever recorded have been recorded over the last 10 years and this is part of global warming, the systematic warming of the planet as the result of enhanced greenhouse gasses,” he said.
“Now in 2015 what is making it such an exceptionally warm year globally and in South Africa is the fact that we also have the naturally occurring event of El Niño, which warms large parts of the Pacific Ocean and that then results in an enhanced global warming that we are experiencing this year,” he continued.
According to the WFP, Zimbabwe and Malawi are facing a serious food security problem, with over three million people in desperate need of food.
Farmers have experienced widespread crop failures this year. In an effort to avoid wastage, WFP have given people in need money to buy their own food, a move that allows them to buy what they need and want, all the while boosting the struggling economy.
Smallholder farmers who qualify for the $9 cash allocation also have to participate in agricultural training programs to help them plan for the future.
A beneficiary of WFP’s initiative in Malawi, Ruth Juwuawuu, told Reuters the dry spells have resulted in nothing to harvest.
“It’s been a really bad year because of the floods and the dry spells that resulted in most of the harvest not harvesting anything in the fields and this affected us in that we don’t have anything,” she said.
According to David Orr, a WFP communications officer for the region, approximately 27 million people are facing hunger this year.
“There is quite a severe food security situation in southern Africa at the moment as a result of failed rains across the region earlier this year, you have a very bad situation in certain countries, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar at the moment. Also, in the case of Malawi there were very severe floods this year which have contributed to the situation. There are approximately more than 27 million people facing hunger this period of the year.”
A report by the World Bank released this week said that 100 million people the world over would be poverty stricken if climate change continued to affect weather patterns in the way that it currently is. (Reuters)