Over 500 face hunger after El Nino effects
LAVUNDLAMANTI – Over 500 families in two communities under Sithobela Inkhundla face hunger after the devastating effects of El Nino.
El Nino is historically associated with record high temperatures and droughts in summer rainfall regions of southern Africa. El Nino hit Eswatini in October last year and the most affected areas were in the Lubombo Region.
This publication recently published an article to the effect that over 1 000 households at Lubuli would face hunger due to El Nino. According to Sithobela Member of Parliament (MP) Manqoba Sihlongonyane, the affected communities are Lavundlamanti and Mhembe.
Hunger
At Mhembe, a cow was found foraging on dry maize plants. Sihlongonyane shared that in this area, slightly over 120 families would experience hunger due to failure to cultivate on time, coupled with the devastating effects of El Nino.
The legislator said at Lavundlamanti, over 390 families would not harvest their maize this summer after the persistent heat experienced since October last year.
Adding, the MP mentioned that his constituency would be affected by food insecurity, hence it was vital that government, through the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), should intervene. He further said the constituency had no reports of cattle that had died due to the drought.
However, Sihlongonyane urged government to build more dams under his constituency to mitigate the shortage of water for communities and livestock during the dry season. “It is disturbing that the people of my constituency will experience food shortages yet some family members are unemployed and they depend on elderly grants from government. We appeal to government to swiftly address this predicament as we have young school-going children, who will be immensely affected by the food shortage,” he said. Echoing his sentiments was Gogo Mamba of Lavundlamanti, who said the decline in rainfall from October last year had a negative effect on their produce. The elderly woman urged government to devise a strategy to assist in fast-tracking the registration for tractors in the Ministry of Agriculture.
She stated that her community was also hit hard by the El Nino-induced dry spell, hence they were appealing to government to provide food to the affected families.
“We ask government to support the needy families who will not be able to afford to buy mealie-meal due to poverty.
I am old and only survive through the elderly grants yet I have to take care of my grandchildren,” she said.
Furthermore, the legislator appealed for assistance from humanitarian organisations with food and other necessities. The MP said the constituency had a huge number of unemployed youth, hence there was a need for the establishment of factory shells to create job opportunities.
Acknowledged
He acknowledged that the road project from Siphofaneni to Sithobela and Maloma would also assist in availing job opportunities for the unemployed youth. The legislator further thanked government for providing a budget for tarring the road and mentioned that such initiatives were important to attract investors.
“The tarring of the road will play a significant role in developing the constituency and improving the lives of Sithobela people through creating job opportunities from businesses that will set up shops in the different communities. We are optimistic that businesses will now stock their products and services with ease after the upgrading of the road,” added the MP.
A resident of Mhembe, Babe Dlamini, said the delay in cultivating the fields to plant maize had also contributed to the poor harvest to be recorded this year in the community.
“The heat we experienced last year in October resulted in some of the families not planting maize on time. We urge government to assist us with food as some of the families are headed by children after the demise of their parents,” he said.
At KaMkhweli, under Siphofaneni Inkhundla, Bucopho Majaha Zwane lamented the effects of El Nino. He said most families would not harvest anything due to the drought.
Zwane said the chiefdom’s fields used to produce enough food to feed the underprivileged and orphaned children in the community.
The bucopho further appealed to companies to donate food to the affected families. “It is so hurting to see children walking to their homes with no hope of what they will eat before they sleep. The nutrition care point was built for the purpose of feeding those children,” he said.
NDMA Marketing and Communications Manager Wandile Mavuso said his office had not yet received a report from the affected families.
However, he referred further questions to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary (PS) Sydney Simelane said they would wait for a report on the matter and involve the NDMA in assisting the affected families. Simelane said officers had to collect data and the number of affected families so that the ministry could be able to quantify the assistance to be provided to them.
The PS said detailed information about the damage on crops would be provided tomorrow. “We will compile a report with the figures of the affected families and then engage NDMA on how they can be assisted,” he said.