HEATWAVE LEAVES OVER 1 000 PEOPLE HUNGRY, 70 CATTLE DEAD

LUBULI – The sweltering heatwave caused the death of about 70 cattle and scorched vast acres of crops and vegetation at Lubuli, leaving over 1 000 in dire need of food.

Lubuli is in the Lubombo Region. Distraught residents said they were experiencing one of the worst drought spells, which has turned lush vegetation into arid fields of brown shrivelled crops, in the region known for poverty and hunger. Lubuli residents believe they were targeted by the dreaded El Niño, which is a climate phenomenon causing dry weather conditions, when rains are extremely scarce. National authorities have said the drought will worsen the ailing food security by drastically reducing the country’s maize harvest, and potentially increasing the need to import more food. Residents took the Times of Eswatini on a field trip, where this reporter was shown carcasses cows and dried up rivers and dams. Some boreholes can no longer produce groundwater. Lubuli lies in the Lowveld Region, where on some days, temperatures soar to 40 degrees Celsius.

Crops

Horrified farmers said their crops started drying up between December 2023 and January this year. They said the situation worsened last month, when the area did not receive a drop of rainfall. The farmers said due to insufficient rainfall and extreme temperatures, it was impossible for them to get any harvest from crops this year. Some of the farmers lamented having spent their savings growing crops this season. Ntuthwakazi Bucopho Bonginkosi Mabaso said Lubuli had been perched in dry weather conditions since September 2023, but the worst was witnessed in October, when the soil lost moisture, resulting in crops waning. He said the entire Lubuli Constituency, comprising of Bhadlane, Sinyamantulwa, Ntuthwakazi, KaMngometulu, Ngonini, Mconcwane, among others, were affected.

Rains

Mabaso said some farmers resolved to plant afresh, with the hope of rains falling towards the end of 2023. “Kushe konkhe emasini (everything was scorched in the fields). We will not harvest anything this season. Even in 2014, this area was not spared from El Niño since crops, livestock and rivers dried up.  I presume that farmers will only harvest one or two per cent of what they initially expected,” said Mabaso. Those likely to reap anything, he said, were those who had planted crops much earlier, in October last year. Mabaso said when the heatwave started, he had assumed that it would be a temporary condition, not knowing that El Niño had struck the whole area. He said: “When some of the rivers and boreholes dried up, we thought it was the work of the proverbial snake haunting the area (kunenyoka kulendzawo). The majority of farmers who planted their fields in December will harvest nothing, since the moisture had long dried up.”

Mabaso said the situation was expected to worsen, should the rainfall continue to be scarce. “If we can end March still in the dry spell, we will suffer a lot. The situation is getting worse day-by-day,” he said. Mabaso said the people were in dire need of food. He pleaded with government to intervene before human lives were lost. Singing the same tune, Andrias Mfana Mamba, who is Mngometulu Bucopho, stated that the situation was so bad that farmers complained of not getting any harvest. Mamba said most farmers spent a lot of money growing their crops, only to be affected by such a drought. “Kutelutfo emasimini. We do not know what to do anymore. People will die of hunger,” said Mamba. Meanwhile, Josephat Gumbi, an affected farmer, said he spent over E8 000 this season, hoping to yield a bountiful maize harvest.

Gumbi said he paid a tractor about E3 150 for tilling the soil for seven hours. He said he planted maize in November, with the hope of getting more produce. The farmer said he was unfortunate that everything he planted had been destroyed by the intense heat. He wondered how he missed the warnings by the Meteorological Service on the weather changes. Gumbi said following last year’s announcement that the country would have normal to above normal rainfall, he hastily planted more crops, not knowing that he was wasting his resources. Nevertheless, the adamant farmer said he would continue growing crops because it had become his way of life. Likewise, Sifiso Ntibane, another affected resident, said he first attempted to plant maize in November, but a few seedlings germinated, due to the dry season. He said he spent E1 460 this planting season. Ntibane said he was later forced to replace the damaged seedlings, which later withered away after the temperatures rose. “I will not get anything from the maize I planted in December,” he said.

However, this publication later gathered that Lubuli residents were not the only community to be affected by the heatwave, as some residents in places like Phuzumoya, Duze, Lavumisa, Hlathikulu and Nhlangano have also raised the alarm. El Niño is historically associated with record high temperatures and droughts in summer rainfall regions of southern Africa.  Eswatini was once hit by a severe drought in 2015/16, which affected the national economy. It is on record that due to lack of feed and water, 88 000 cattle died during the 2015/16 drought nationwide.  The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) report of 2017 revealed that 38 899 cattle had died in 2014, while the number of those that died in 2013 was 35 096.

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