In late 2015 South Africa faced one of the worst droughts to hit the region in 30 years.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 When was the worst drought to hit South Africa before this one?
2 Which sector of the South African economy has been the worst hit by the drought?
3 Why is the government being criticized?
4 How is the drought going to affect food security?
The devastating effects of El Nino, the lack of rain accompanied by heat waves. This is the worst drought to hit South Africa since 1982. Millions are facing water shortages.
This is rather unusual, because under normal circumstances, I’ll be in waist height in water here. This reservoir has completely dried up, and it just goes to show how severe the drought is.
The country’s farmers have been the hardest hit, six of Tosogalanis’ cows starved to death, many more are missing, he fears the worst. He wanted to show us the dried-up watering hole, only to find one of his cows trapped in the mud, close to death. There was no time to waste, more men power was needed, and the BBC team had to put the camera down and assist with the rescue…
Come on, here you go.
This is heart-breaking, I am losing out more than I should be gaining, it’s only a matter of time before those who work for me become unemployed.
Without some intervention, the stark reality facing many farmers is that more livestock will keep dying. Many commercial farmers have criticized the government’s slow response in helping out.
At this stage, there is no help, because of these clouds, we are still waiting to hear what are the programmes that are going to be implemented for fighting this drought. We didn’t even plant, so it’s going to be… to affect our food security, it’s going to affect the price and the poorest of the poorest that you always talk about, they’re the one who are going to be worse off.
The prospects of rainfall look promising. But the ever-changing weather patterns brought by climate change could still affect the country’s food security.
Key:
1 1982
2 farming
3 for the slow response in helping
4 farmers haven't planted, the price is going to be affected and poor people will be worse off
