Fears of a third consecutive drought

Mozambique could be facing its third consecutive drought year, according to the latest report by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET). The Harare-based FEWSNET noted in its latest update that more than half the country had received less than 75 percent of normal rainfall in the past few months. "In meteorological terms, less than 75 percent of normal rain over an extended period is considered a drought," the report said. The World Food Programme is expected to revise its original plans to scale down emergency food distributions in light of the poor rainfall. In December last year, food distributions fell short in the southern province of Gaza and the central provinces of Tete and Zambezia. A meeting of the Southern African Development Community this week in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, will assess the situation in the drought-hit region. Until the beginning of November last year, vulnerability monitoring had indicated stable food security conditions, "mainly due to ongoing interventions and off-season production in 2003". However, rainfall had been "exceptionally poor" since mid-November, said the report. Most of the central and southern region of Mozambique received less than half the normal rain for the period. Eastern Inhambane and Gaza provinces in the south, which received less than 17 percent to 29 percent of the usual rainfall, are the worst affected. According to FEWSNET, the first planting in the southern region has already failed and households have had to replant at least once. The neighbouring province of Zambezia, which usually exports surplus maize to the other southern provinces and even Malawi, received only 43 percent to 58 percent of the expected rain. A FEWSNET team visited three districts in Maputo province and found that in some areas farmers have had to replant three times because peanut, cow pea and maize crops had failed to survive, but the cassava crop seemed unaffected by the dry spells. The Save and Limpopo rivers are lower than last year. "With water levels in the main rivers substantially decreased, most or all tributaries have dried up, forcing people to go farther and farther in search of water, increasing the amount of time they spend each day fetching water," said the report. Water scarcity is also affecting livestock in some parts of the south. "This year's poor rainfall is also compounded by the fact that it follows on two years of drought, which means that residual water supplies carried over from a normal year are not available," said the report. In some instance, people and cattle are sharing the same water from wells built in the beds of dried rivers.