Need for better management of water resources

Opened by King Mswati III and South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma in June to help alleviate their countries' chronic water shortages, the Maguga Dam appears to be the first victim of an impending drought. The dam's water level dropped from only 26 percent of capacity last week to 23 percent this week. "At this time of year, dams are supposed to be filling up," Raphael Sangweni, Chief Hydrologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources, told IRIN. Swaziland's hydrological impoverishment, to use the technical term, is directly tied to the current food crisis. About 270,000 people, more than a quarter of Swaziland's population, will be without food by year's end, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Erratic rainfall stunted this year's crop of maize, the national staple food. For 2002-2003, meteorologists had predicted normal rainfall through December, after which El Nino weather conditions were likely to bring dry, rainless weather. However, expected rains have not fallen in September and October. These are the months when grain crops are normally planted. But with no rainfall in sight, farmers have held onto their seeds, but time to plant is running out. The water level of Majoli Dam, the nation's second largest, dropped by three million cubic metres since last week. "We always see water running down the spillage this time of year, but today there's not even a trickle," said Sangweni. He's job is to monitor the levels and water quality of Swaziland's five major rivers, the Komati, the Usuthu, the Mbuluzi, the Lomati and the Ngwavuma, and the main secondary rivers. About 10 percent of Swazis rely solely on untreated river water for their needs, with women and children having to walk up to 5km to fetch water. A survey by the United Nations Development Programme found that only 53 percent of Swazis have access to clean water. Most of the hydrologically impoverished population resides in informal township settlements that are not connected to urban water or sewerage infrastructure. Sangweni, who also monitors river water purity, said the current lack of rainfall, which may signal a fully-fledged drought, was compromising water quality. "With river levels low, there is less dissipation of impurities, and the pollutants are more concentrated," said Sangweni. Swaziland has nearly as many cattle as people, livestock urinate and defecate in streams freely. The same streams that villagers wash clothes in. Industrial polluters are also a problem. A Water Bill passed by parliament in July to replace a 1967 law regulating water use awaits Mswati's assent. "Fines for polluters were ridiculously low in the old law: US $10 for a first offence. The new bill raises the penalty for first time polluters to US $1,000, five months in prison or both," Sangweni noted. Companies at the Matsapha Industrial Estate have been known to discharge effluents directly into the Lusushwana River, which is a primary water supply for some downstream residents. Currently, a major distillery is being sued by the Swaziland Environmental Authority for polluting the Usuthu River. The action is the authority's first major investigation to be prosecuted. Ninety percent of Swaziland's rural population is served by boreholes. Currently, 1,603 wells in this small country are draining a beadwork of subterranean aquifers that are not being replenished. "The little rains we have do not soak into the ground," Musa Welase, a geophysicist with the National Water Bureau, told IRIN. "To drill a borehole you require a permit from us," Welase said. "But we always grant them. If you need a well it is like going to a hospital to see a doctor, you must be permitted." But proliferating wells are draining aquifers, requiring deeper drilling for boreholes that serve rural communities. These communal wells are equipped with pumps that draw water into storage tanks used by neighbouring homesteads. Dennis Mkhonta of the Swaziland Meteorological Service said: "Because of the present dry conditions we can foresee there will come a time when water tanker trucks will have to be used to supply drinking water." Since the 1992 drought, a number of measures have been taken to improve water storage and quality. However, many of the projects were incomplete. A massive project to tap the Lower Usuthu River for its irrigation potential awaits consultation with Mozambique and South Africa, where Usuthu flows after departing Swaziland. The new Maguga Dam harnesses the Komati River for the benefit of users in the dry eastern lowveld of the country, but adequate rains have not fallen to fill its reservoir. The Komati is also shared by Mozambique and South Africa, and user rights are being negotiated in a tri-partite treaty. The Republic of China is financing the first study of Swaziland's aquifers. The rise and fall of ground water levels were being monitored, as well as the extent to which rain water seepage replenished ground water supplies. "I think we will be insecure if drought comes. We don't have enough dams," Sangweni warned. "But with the projects now underway, we will have enough water storage areas to mitigate the effects of future droughts," he added.