An ongoing drought in the Beaufort West area has placed immense strain on the surrounding communities, but residents are stepping up to find solutions. l HENK KRUGER/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
By Amber Julius
Getting involved in food gardens is a way for unemployed youth from Merweville to take action against poverty in their communities.
The little village, situated approximately 130 km south-east of Beaufort West in the province of the Western Cape, has faced an extreme drought over the past few years.
When the community faces a drought, jobs are scarce as the quantity and quality of crops and livestock decrease, and many small-scale farmers are unable to meet the demands. With the rising unemployment rate, poverty increases as well.
Senior citizen Jan Bostander ascribes the existing drought to climate change. Not only does this community face a drought, but there is also a water scarcity. “There aren’t enough boreholes to source everyone,” said Bostander.
According to Bostander, this affects many people’s livelihoods, health, and sanitation. Bostander calls on the municipality to invest in more boreholes. He adds that the river running through the community has run dry. Many people relied on the river to collect water for various reasons, such as gardening.
With the rising temperatures contributed to by global warming, the piercing drought in the Central Karoo continues to disrupt many people’s livelihoods.
With these drought conditions in, in June this year, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA) disbursed drought-support totalling R48.1 million, to farmers in the worst affected areas in these regions.
According to the statement released by the department: “Based on its provincial risk assessment, including technical veld assessments, the WCDoA distributed 4 065 fodder vouchers over three months (April - June 2022) to livestock farmers in critical drought areas.”
In addition, the statement said that areas with below-average rainfall predicted for the next eight months (counting from June 20022) were prioritised for support.
The WCDoA implemented the following drought risk reduction interventions:
Climate education
In the community of Merweville, people still need education in terms of awareness programmes relating to climate change and how to adapt to these situations.
While there is not much of this awarenesses since organisations providing this kind of awareness are in the cities, Johan Hendricks, a 26-year-old community leader, saw the need for intervention in his community for climate education.
He educates the community, especially senior citizens, about climate change, its effects, and climate resilience.
Hendricks spends his free time mobilising the youth and others and hosts workshops about sustainably cultivating the soil and gardening. He sketches images to simplify the concept of climate change, as many people in his community left school very young and do not understand certain terminology.
He has been working towards creating sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of farming. His creative method of cultivating the soil not only preserves the soil but is also water efficient. Another method of climate resilience shown by the members of the food garden is recycling.
One of the initiatives taken by the youth in Merweville was to start a food garden. Approximately 60% of the 40 people who work in the garden are youth. Hendricks called on the municipality to come out into their community.
“We need to look at alternative methods, such as recycling; we have raw materials which can be recycled, but we need recycling bins and access to resources such as sawing machines to chop up trees,” said Hendricks.
He added that he could only do so much and didn’t have the means to recycle all products. He adds that all their waste gets collected, dumped in a heap, and burnt. Hendricks stresses that there must be an alternative to waste management as this method pollutes the air.
The community of Merweville has applied to utilise vacant land to expand its garden. They are patiently awaiting a response from the municipality. The food garden feeds many people. It is a means of recreation and something that uplifts the community.
The people of Merweville take pride in this project.
* This story was produced through the Youth Citizen Journalism Fellowship, an initiative of the Rural Action for Climate Resilience project which is co-funded by the European Union and the Heinrich Boll Foundation.
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