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Journal of Namibian Studies, 27 (2020): 37 – 58 ISSN: 2197-5523 (online)
Copyright © 2020 Otjivanda Presse.Bochum ISSN 1863-5954 (print) ISSN 2197-5523 (online)
The 2019 drought in Namibia:
An overview
Rosemary N. Shikangalah*
Abstract
Namibia is one of most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change due the
aridity to most parts of the country. Events resulting from climate changes such
droughts drive the majority of population to poverty when they occur. Drought spells
have become a common feature in Namibia. In 2019, another drought hit Namibia
and several resultant impacts made news. This study aimed at providing an overview
of the drought impacts from the 2019 news headlines. The study employed an online
survey on reported events based on both national and international news reports.
The study found that the rainfall during the 2019 drought was the lowest recorded in
Windhoek since 1891 and the drought was the worst in the last 90 years in Namibia.
A combination of poor, sporadic rainfall and low soil moisture has led to very low
agriculture production and an extreme shortage of water, affecting several
communities across the country. As a result, at least one-third of the Namibian
population was left without adequate food supplies and thousands of livestock
perished due to drought. The study concluded that there is a need to adopt and use
various drought survival mechanisms on a permanent basis rather than only
implementing them when drought occurs. This would largely reduce the dependency
on the interventions. Budgetary planning could focus for instance on establishing the
required desalination plants and infrastructure for pumping water from the coast to
distant needy communities.
Introduction
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges that the world is currently facing.
During the twentieth century, the average temperature increased by at least 0.6˚C and it
is expected to increase further by at least 1.4˚C in the 21st century.
1
The changes in
temperature and rainfall patterns impact on water resources, affecting socio-economic
* Rosemary Ndawapeka Shikangalah is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of
Namibia, Namibia. Her research interests are on rural and urban socio-eco-hydrological challenges and the
influence of climate change on geo-biophysical cycles, with a focus on soil conditions and related ecological
dynamics. E-mail: rshikangalah@unam.na
1
Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), “National Policy on Climate Change for Namibia-2011”, MET,
2011,
http://www.met.gov.na/files/files/National%20Policy%20on%20Climate%20Change%20for%20Namibia%2
02011.pdf [accessed 28 October, 2019]; United Nations Development Program (UNDP),
Sustainable
Management of Namibia’s Forested Lands (NAFOLA)
, UNDP-GEF Project, 2014-2019, UNDP, 2019: 1-87.
38
and biophysical environments, and hydrological cycles.
2
It is estimated that nearly half of
the global population will face the problem of water shortages by 2030.
3
In 2019, the
impacts of climate change resulted in drought that severely affected areas such as
north-eastern China, North Korea, North Ontario in Canada, Southern Australia, Angola,
Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
4
According to Denise Garcia,
vulnerability to climate change depends on geographical positioning in relation to the
equator, the level of dependence on agriculture sectors, and gaps in managing the
socio-economic, financing, rate of poverty and population growth rate.
5
Africa has been
recognised as most vulnerable to climate change, with impacts severely affecting poor
communities in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries.
6
In southern Africa, the drought has led to an almost complete lack of rainfall during the
planting season in regions such as Central Mozambique, Southern Angola, Southern
Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
7
In 2019, the annual agricultural output in
Namibia and Botswana was estimated to have fallen to below 50% and lower than 40%
in Zimbabwe than the 5 year average.
8
By the end of October 2019, up to 45 million
2
Siri E. H. Eriksen and Helene K. Watson, “The dynamic context of southern African savannas: investigating
emerging threats and opportunities to sustainability”,
Environmental Science & Policy
, 12 (1), 2009: 5-22
Eriksen & Watson, 2009; Samuel Kusangaya, Michele L. Warburton, Emma Archer Van Garderen and Graham
P. W. Jewitt, “Impacts of climate change on water resources in southern Africa: A review”, Physics and
Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, 67, 2014: 47-54; Francis Davison Yamba, Hartley Walimwipi, Suman
Jain, Peter Zhou, Boaventura Cuamba and Cornelius Mzezewa, “Climate change/variability implications on
hydroelectricity generation in the Zambezi River Basin”,
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global
Change
, 16 (6), 2011: 617-628.
3
Karrie Lynn Pennington and Thomas V. Cech,
Introduction to Water Resources and Environmental Issues
,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010; Pierre Van Rensburg, “Overcoming global water reuse
barriers: the Windhoek experience”, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32 (4), 2016:
622-636.
4
Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), “Poor rainfall since late January strengthens dryness
across Southern Africa”, FEWS NET Global Weather Hazards Summary, 07 March 2019,
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-weather-hazards-summary-march-01-07-2019 [accessed 12
October, 2019]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “Drought harms corn crops in
Southern Africa”, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 28 February 2019,
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144704/drought-harms-corn-crops-in-southern-africa [accessed
12 October, 2019].
5
Denise Garcia, “The climate security divide: bridging human and national security in Africa",
African
Security Studies
, 17 (3), 2008: 1-17; Thulani Dube, Philani Moyo, Moreblessings Ncube and Douglas
Nyathi, “The impact of climate change on agro-ecological based livelihoods in Africa: A review”,
Journal of
Sustainable Development
, 9 (1), 2016: 256-267.
6
John M. Callaway, “Adaptation benefits and costs: are they important in the global policy picture and how
can we estimate them?”,
Global Environmental Change. Human and Policy Dimensions
, 14, 2004: 273-282;
Kusangaya et al., “Impacts”.
7
NASA, “Drought harms”.
8
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), “Southern Africa: Emergency Response Plan 2019–2020”, The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 31 October 2019,
http://www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/documents/resources-detail/en/c/1241365/ [accessed 31
October, 2019].
39
people across the 16 countries in the SADC region were found to be severely vulnerable
to food insecurity, and this led organisations such as the International Federation of the
Red Cross (IFRC) to seek around 3.5 million Swiss francs to assist Zambia and the EU to
assist Zimbabwe with € 53 million.
9
The severity of the drought in 2019 meant that
drought-related issues from across the region made news headlines. This paper
therefore aimed at providing an overview of drought-related impacts that made news
headlines in 2019, with a specific focus on Namibia. Such an overview helps to identify
what measures are needed to reduce the impacts that are faced by the communities.
Literature review
Namibia is one of the driest countries in Africa. The country lies between two deserts,
the Kalahari to the east and the Namib in the west. Typical of arid areas, the country is
water stressed, characterised mostly by low and highly variable average annual rainfall,
with exceedingly high evaporation rates of 83%.
10
The annual evaporation is estimated
to be six times higher than the mean annual rainfall and 100 times higher in arid
areas.
11
Namibia is prone to natural disasters and the country battles with flooding and
drought events. The reoccurrence of droughts is currently a norm in most parts of the
country, which led to the development of the National Drought Policy and strategy in
1997.
12
In recent decades, drought periods occurred from 1980 to 1984, 1992/1993,
2012/2013 and in 2019.
13
According to Richard Moorsom et al., the 1992/93 drought
9
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), “As climate shocks intensify, UN food agencies urge more
support for Southern Africa’s hungry people”, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
31 October 2019, http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1242784/icode/ [accessed 31 October, 2019];
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Emergency Appeal Zambia:
Drought (Food Insecurity), 29 October 2019,
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/MDRZM012do.pdf [accessed 31 October, 2019];
European Commission, “EU to step up its support to Zimbabwe with a new package of €53 million”,
European Union Press Corner, 28 October 2019,
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_6170 [accessed 30 October, 2019].
10
Brenda Bravenboer,
Windhoek: Capital of Namibia
, Windhoek, Gamsberg Macmillan, 2004; Marelize
Mostert,
Urban water supply and demand management: a case study of Windhoek
, Namibia, PhD Diss.,
Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch University, 2017.
11
Peter J. Jacobson, Kathryn N. Jacobson and Mary K. Seely,
Ephemeral rivers and their catchments:
sustaining people and development in western Namibia
, Windhoek, Desert Research Foundation of Namibia,
1995; Mary Seely, Judith Henderson, Piet Heyns, Peter Jacobson, Tufikifa Nakale, Komeine Nantanga and
Klaudia Schachtschneider, “Ephemeral and endoreic river systems: Relevance and management challenges",
in: Anthony Turton, Peter Ashton and Eugene Cloete, (eds.),
Transboundary Rivers, Sovereignty and
Development: Hydropolitical Drivers in the Okavango River Basin
, University of Pretoria, African Water Issues
Research Unit, 2003: 187-212.
12
National Drought Task Force,
Towards a drought policy for Namibia. A discussion document prepared by
the National Drought Task Force for a workshop at Neudamm Agricultural College 11-13 March 1997,
Namibia
, Windhoek, National Drought Task Force, 1997.
13
Annelie Coleman, “Breeding cattle that thrive in Namibia’s arid regions”,
Farmer’s Weekly
, 18 October
2019, https://www.magzter.com/article/Business/Farmers-Weekly/Breeding-Cattle-That-Thrive-In-Namibias-
Arid-Regions [accessed 18 October, 2019]; Stephen Devereux and Trine Naeraa, “Drought and survival in
40
saw rainfall levels just below normal, and hence was not so extreme.
14
However, the
drought of 2012/2013 was thought to be the worst of the decade as around 42% of
the total population experienced food insecurity. The Namibian government declared a
state of emergency requested $33.7 million of international support.
15
Both rainfall and
temperature in Namibia were significantly influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation
(ENSO), and below average rainfall was experienced during the ENSO.
16
Average annual
rainfall for almost two-thirds of the country is 250mm in normal rainfall periods and
lower during the ENSO.
17
With such low average rainfall, the country relies heavily on
groundwater systems for supplies for both the rural and urban population.
Observations and analyses made over the last decade showed that there has been a
continuous rise in temperatures and decrease in the annual rainfall from December to
March, resulting in shorter seasons in Southern Africa.
18
Moreover, a further decline in
rainfall of up to 5% is expected over the southern African region.
19
Projections for the
Namibian climate showed that there will be a further drop in the amount of rainfall and
that it will also be highly variable, leading to drier conditions and further water shortages
as well as reduced yields from rain-fed agricultural activities.
20
Recent studies have
shown that for each 1% change in rainfall, there is an effect of 1.2 to 1.6% on carrying
capacity. With rainfall estimated to decline by about 10% by 2050 in the Southern
Namibia, a decline in carrying capacity of 10% in southern and 15% in central Namibia
is expected.
21
rural Namibia”,
Journal of Southern African Studies
, 22 (3), 1996: 421-440; Azad Essa, “Namibia battles
worst drought in decades”, Aljazeera, 09 October 2019,
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/10/namibia-battles-worst-drought-decades-
201310851010116562.html [accessed 12 October, 2019]; Richard Moorsom, Jutta Franz and Moono
Mupotola,
Coping with Aridity: Drought Impacts and Preparedness in Namibia-Experiences from 1992/93
,
Frankfurt am Main, Brandes & Apsel, 1995.
14
Moorsom et al.,
Coping with Aridity
: 32.
15
Essa, “Namibia battles”.
16
Hannah Reid, Linda Sahlén, Jesper Stage and James MacGregor, “Climate change impacts on Namibia’s
natural resources and economy”,
Climate Policy
, 8 (5), 2008: 452-466.
17
MET, “National Policy”.
18
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Core Writing Team, Rajendra K. Pachauri and Leo A.
Meyer, (eds.),
Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report. Contributing of Working Groups: I, II and III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change
, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015,
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/05/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full_wcover.pdf [accessed 31 October,
2019]; Kusangaya et al., “Impacts”; Waturu Morishima and Ikumi Akasaka, “Seasonal trends of rainfall and
surface temperature over southern Africa”,
African Study Monographs, Supplementary Issue
, 40, 2010: 67-
76.
19
Martin Hoerling, James Hurrell, Jon Eischeid and Adam Phillips, “Detection and attribution of twentieth-
century northern and southern African rainfall change”,
Journal of Climate
, 19 (16), 2006: 3989-4008.
20
Dube et al., “Impact”; Reid et al., “Climate change”.
21
UNDP,
Sustainable Management.
41
Settings
Current state
Namibia covers 825,419 km² (318,772 sq. mi.). Of the total area of the country, 22% is
classified as hyper-arid (desert), 33% as arid, 37% as semiarid, and only 8% is sub-
humid (Fig. 2c).
22
The country has an average annual rainfall of 250mm, with less than
10mm in the hyper-arid areas (mainly desert) and 600mm in sub-humid areas of
subtropical and savanna lands, while the temperatures range between 16˚C in coastal
areas to 22˚C in subtropical areas (Fig. 2a & b).
23
According to Adel El-Beltagy and
Magdy Madkour, Yoshihiro Hirooka et al., and Michael Zika and Karl-Heinz Erb, the
impact of climate change is expected to be severe in semi-arid and arid ecosystems and
the already difficult conditions become more acute.
24
The population was estimated to be 2.1 million population in 2011 but currently
estimates put it at 2.5 million.
25
The majority (62%) of the Namibian population lives in
rural areas, from which one can deduce that there is a heavy dependence on farming
systems and thus vulnerability to any negative changes.
26
The population depends
largely on natural resource sectors that are climate sensitive (agriculture and fisheries),
and depends heavily on rain fed agriculture.
27
Subsistence farming suffers most under
climate change, and this has become a great concern for Namibia as close to two-thirds
of the population live from this form of agriculture.
28
Groundwater is the most important water source in Namibia with around 80% of the
country depending on it during drought periods.
29
About 65% of the water supply is
obtained from groundwater systems such as boreholes and wells, and only 35% is from
22
National Drought Task Force,
Drought Policy .
23
Robert Mendelsohn, Kerry Emanuel, Shun Chonabayashi and Laura Bakkensen, “The impact of climate
change on global tropical cyclone damage”,
Nature Climate Change
, 2 (3), 2012: 205-209.
24
Adel El-Beltagy and Magdy Madkour, “Impact of climate change on arid lands agriculture”,
Agriculture &
Food Security
, 1 (3), 2012: 1-12; Yoshihiro Hirooka, Koichi Shoji, Yoshinori Watanabe, Yasuhiro Izumi,
Simon K. Awala and Morio Iijima, “Ridge formation with strip tillage alleviates excess moisture stress for
drought-tolerant crops”,
Soil and Tillage Research
, 195, 2019: 104429; Michael Zika and Karl-Heinz Erb,
“The global loss of net primary production resulting from human-induced soil degradation in drylands”,
Ecological Economics
, 69 (2), 2009: 310-318.
25
National Statistics Agency (NSA),
Namibia 2011. Population and Housing Census. Preliminary Results
,
Windhoek, 2011; World Population Review, “United Nations population estimates and projections”,
Worldpopulationreview.com, 07 June 2020, http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/namibia-population/
[accessed 07 June, 2020].
26
MET, “National Policy”.
27
Ibid.
28
Reid et al., “Climate change”.
29
Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), “The effect of bush encroachment on groundwater resources in
Namibia: A desk top study”, Windhoek, NAU, 2010, http://www.agrinamibia.com.na/wp-
content/uploads/2018/02/ [accessed 12 October, 2019]; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC),
Namibia second national communication to the United Nations framework convention on
climate change
, Windhoek, Republic of Namibia, 2010.
42
surface water sources such as dams and other means of harvesting from the
catchments.
30
However, only 1% of the rainfall goes to groundwater recharge as 2% is
surface overflow, 14% returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration and 83%
of the rainfall evaporates.
31
A small reduction in the amount of rainfall due to climate
change can significantly affect the recharge of aquifers, affecting the water situation not
only for human, livestock and wildlife populations, but also for the associated functions
and processes of the ecosystems in Namibia.
Figure 1: Namibia location
32
30
Namibia Water Corporation, “NamWater Annual Report”, NamWater, 2017,
https://www.namwater.com.na/images/docs/Namwter_Annual_Report_2017.pdf [accessed 30 October,
2019].
31
Ibid.
32
Richard F. Logan and George B. Silberbauer, “Kalahari Desert”,
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, 24 December
2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Kalahari-Desert [accessed 08 October, 2019].
43
Figure 2: a) Rainfall, b) Temperature
33
and c) Land type regions
34
a) b) c)
Material and methods
According to Katiuscia Fara, the past decade has witnessed an increasing interest in
disasters largely because of increased media reporting of disaster events such as
drought.
35
This research paper is based on reports from the online version of news,
taking after many scholars that have explored climate change related research based on
news headlines.
36
The search was conducted in two steps. In the first step, only the headlines were
considered because headlines serve as a cognitive shortcut to draw the readers’
attention more than the texts do.
37
The second step looked into the text of the articles
to remove the articles that did not relate to water or drought related impacts, although
their titles / headlines seemed to suggest so. A total of 63 news headlines for the 2019
drought in Namibia were used in this study. Most of them (42) are listed in Table 1.
33
Mendelsohn et al., “Impact”.
34
Vilho Mtuleni,
Comprehensive environmental plan for road transportation of sulphuric acid along Trans-
Zambezi (Walvis Bay – Wenela Border), Namibia,
Walvis Bay, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 2019.
35
Katiuscia Fara, “How natural are ‘natural disasters’? Vulnerability to drought of communal farmers in
Southern Namibia”,
Risk Management
, 3 (3), 2001: 47-63.
36
Maxwell T. Boykoff and Jules M. Boykoff, “Climate change and journalistic norms: A case-study of US
mass-media coverage”,
Geoforum
, 38 (6), 2007: 1190-1204; James D. Ford and Diana King, “Coverage
and framing of climate change adaptation in the media: A review of influential North American newspapers
during 1993-2013”,
Environmental Science & Policy
, 48, 2015: 137-146; Robert J. Lennox, David A. Crook,
Peter B. Moyle, Daniel P. Struthers and Steven J. Cooke, “Toward a better understanding of freshwater fish
responses to an increasingly drought-stricken world”,
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries
, 29 (1), 2019:
71-92; Brian Miles and Stephanie Morse, “The role of news media in natural disaster risk and recovery”,
Ecological Economics
, 63 (2-3), 2007: 365-373; Marc Agon Pacoma, “Environmental realities: evaluating
climate change coverage of Philippine online news media”,
Jurnal Studi Komunikasi
, 3 (1), 2019: 1-26;
Nancy W. Smith and Helene Joffe, “Climate change in the British press: The role of the visual”,
Journal of Risk
Research
, 12 (5), 2009: 647-663; Tammy Speers, “A picnic in march: media coverage of climate change
and public opinion in the United Kingdom”, Springer,
GeoJournal Library
, 81, 2005: 121-135.
37
Blake C. Andrew, “Media-generated shortcuts: Do newspaper headlines present another roadblock for
low-information rationality?”,
Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics
,12 (2), 2007: 24-43; Sara
Leckner, “Presentation factors affecting reading behaviour in readers of newspaper media: an eye-tracking
perspective”,
Visual Communication
, 11 (2), 2012: 163-184 (169).
44
Search words included: drought in Namibia 2019, drought in Namibia, water crises in
Namibia 2019 and water shortage in Namibia. The aim was to get reports of drought
cases that have been reported in Namibia from January to October 2019. The search
was carried out only in October because the rainfall season usually starts then and rain
was reported to be expected from then onwards.
38
The search was carried out
repeatedly until no more accessible new headlines were showing. The way the news is
presented in this study does not mean that one newspaper or news platform had
reported the issue more than the others, it all depended on which newspaper the author
found the topic first. Further reports on the same topic in other newspapers were
ignored to avoid duplication. While the result section concentrated on the reported
cases of drought, the discussion section focused on survival during the drought period.
Results
Early warning of drought over Southern Africa 2019
Figure 3 shows the drought conditions at the prime time (cultivation time) in Southern
Africa. The whole Namibia had an overall deficit in precipitation anomalies (Fig. 3a).
About one-third of the country showed a deficit of -100mm, another one-third showed a
deficit of -50mm while the last one-third had better results, showing a deficit of -25mm
to -0mm. This was, however, in the driest part of the country in general, with arid to
hyper arid areas. The soils were found to be very dry, especially over entire area of
Namibia and Southern Angola. At least half of Namibia had soil moisture of -0.08m3/m3
while the rest of the country had -0.04m3/m3 from December 2018 to January 2019
(Fig. 3b). According to FEWS NET and NASA, these conditions intensified over time and
persisted until mid-March, which is the end of the cultivation time in Namibia.
39
Figure 3: Anomalies: a) Rainfall (mm) and b) Soil moisture (m3)
40
a) b)
38
National News, “Promising rainy season forecasted amidst drought”,
The Namibian
, 10 October 2019
https://www.namibian.com.na/194072/archive-read/Promising-rainy-season-forecast-amidst-drought
[accessed 26 October, 2019].
39
FEWS NET, “Poor rainfall”; NASA, “Drought harms”.
40
NASA, “Drought harms”.
45
Drought and agriculture activities
The agricultural sector is one of the primary industries. According to the Bank of
Namibia, the overall output of primary industries in Namibia was expected to decline in
2019.
41
Due to extremely low rainfall in 2019, production in the sector fell by 17.5%
(Fig. 4) and crop growing was most severely affected. As the area planted was smaller
in 2019, output declined from a positive 10% in 2018 to a minus18% in 2019 (Fig. 4).
Moreover, livestock production was already in minus in 2018 and this declined further in
2019.
Figure 4: Annual percentage (%) changes of farming activities, “P” stands for projection
42
While overall crop production fell in 2019 (Fig. 4), cereal production in particular was
estimated to be 53% lower than in 2018, and 42% lower than the 20-year average.
43
Figure 5 below shows the difference between the availability of cereals and the required
amount of cereals from 2014 to 2019. The highest deficit occurred in the year
2018/2019. The table shows improvements during the 2019/2020 year period. This
could be attributed to more forecasted rainfall for that period, which covers the end of
2019 and the beginning of 2020, and which could improve cultivation during the
2019/2020 period.
41
Bank of Namibia, “Economic Outlook – July 2019”, Media Release, 27 August 2019,
https://www.bon.com.na/CMSTemplates/Bon/Files/bon.com.na/f0/f0f40ed8-c16d-420b-8534-
38ef1bd1f4b9.pdf [accessed 11 October, 2019].
42
Ibid.
43
Southern African Development Community (SADC), “Namibia: Vulnerability assessment committee results
2019”, SADC Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis Programme, 31 July 2019,
https://reliefweb.int/report/namibia/namibia-vulnerability-assessment-committee-results-2019 [accessed 16
October, 2019].
46
Figure 5: Cereal availability and requirement
44
Drought headlines
News headlines on drought started as early as April 2019, in both national and
international newspapers and on other media platforms. Table 1 shows a list of
headlines gathered in this study. Lack of drinking water for both humans and animals
(livestock and wildlife) was treated as a more serious threat than concerns about crop
production, which made only a few headlines.
Apart from the drought being the most severe in the last 90 years, the rainfall during
the 2019 drought was the lowest recorded in Windhoek since 1891.
45
The drought was
also declared a national emergency. The 2019 drought spell left around one third of the
Namibian population depending on drought relief support systems with more than one
third (36%) found to be exposed to food insecurity, while 8.64% were estimated to be
from rural areas.
46
During this drought, lives were also lost during attempts to dig wells
to reach groundwater and at least 90,000 livestock died, mostly as a direct result of
thirst, but also due to the resultant deterioration of the grazing areas. Furthermore, the
government sold off wildlife in an attempt to save it from the effects of drought,
particularly thirst, and loss of pastures and vegetation.
The 2019 drought led to calls to support Namibia and various interventions were
provided, mostly monetary donations but also of food and other goods. Despite this
support, the drought relief efforts could not provide the necessary assistance to the
affected communities by October 2019 and the state of emergency was extended for a
further six months, to March 2020. This study opted to not list the contributions
because many interventions and contributions may not always have been made public
and/or made headline.
44
Ibid.
45
New Era, “Namibia’s devastating drought: Our strategy so far”,
New Era
, 07 June 2019,
https://neweralive.na/posts/namibias-devastating-drought-our-strategy-so-far [accessed 16 October,
2019].
46
SADC, “Namibia”.
47
Table 1: News headlines
Category
Publication
Date
Publisher
Headline
Remark
General
06/05/2019
The Namibian
Drought declared
national emergency
President Hage Geingob
declared a state of emergency
in Namibia as a result of the
drought the country is facing
07/05/2019
BBC news
More than 500,000
at risk in drought-hit
Namibia
The lack of rain has already
left 500,000 people - one in
five Namibians without access
to enough food
12/07/2019
New Era
Water remains a
daunting task
Water management and supply
in Namibia remains a daunting
task
13/08/2019
Namibian Sun
Not out of the woods
yet
Drought recovery will the
biggest challenge for the next
3-5 years for the agricultural
sector
15/08/2019
Namibian Sun
Save water before
summer
Saving target is met for July,
but more effort is still needed
21/08/2019
Namibian Sun
Namibians dread
worsening drought
Worst drought in history
03/10/2019
Namibian Sun
Third of Namibians on
drought aid
More than 1/3 of population
on drought relief
03/10/2019
The Namibian
State of drought
emergency extended
State of drought emergency
extended for six months, to
March 2020
09/10/2019
NBC
Government says
drought relief funds
not enough for all
affected communities
Drought relief insufficient
despite contributions from
local and international donors
07/11/2019
The Southern
Times
Namibia’s worst
drought in 90 years
Current drought worst in the
last 90 years
22/11/2019
New Era
Drought exacerbates
cable theft in the
south
A rise in copper cable theft
Household
level
17/06/2019
Namibian Sun
Buried alive
Well collapses while digging for
water
30/06/2019
We.com.na
New water restrictions
in full force
Water restriction effective on 1
July 2019. Use no more than
25m3 per household
48
02/07/2019
New Era
18000 Oshikoto
households drought
hit
Drought worsens - A total of
18677 households are
severely affected
19/08/2019
The Namibian
Khomas hit by severe
food, water shortages
Severe shortage of food and
water in the Windhoek rural
constituencies
17/09/2019
Namibian Sun
Windhoek’s water
situation dire
The city issued an urgent
warning for reduction on water
consumption
19/09/2019
The Namibian
Ovitoto faces water
shortage
Farmers in Ovitoto face severe
water shortages for both
human and animals
01/10/2019
Namibian Sun
Hardap is running dry
Farmers in Hardap to cut back
irrigation by 40% to save
water
25/10/2019
The Namibian
Conservancy comes
to farmers’ rescue
The Ehirovipuka conservancy
purchased 353 bales of
lucerne to support members to
make it through the current
drought
29/10/2019
www.news.cn
Namibian capital still
in severe water
scarcity category
Windhoek exceeds the weekly
water saving target of 7%
Crops
25/04/2019
The Namibian
Namibia: Poor rainfall
impacts country’
agricultural
production
Aggregate cereal production
falls to 53% of 2018, and
42% below the average
production
02/05/2019
FAO: GIEWS
Dry weather
conditions severely
affected cereal
production in 2019
Cumulative season rainfall
volumes were 60-70% below
the average
04/10/2019
The Namibian
Drought pushes
farmers to the edge
No harvests for two years
Livestock
26/04/2019
The Namibian
Drought kills about
64000 animals in 6
months
Deteriorating grazing
conditions being experienced
as rainfall levels drop below
average
28/05/2019
The Namibian
A farmer’s plight amid
the drought
Small scale farmer loses half of
his cattle head and appeals for
assistance
11/09/2019
New Era
Over 30,000 drought-
related cattle deaths
recorded in seven
months
Over 30,000 drought-related
cattle deaths between October
2018 and April 2019, rainfall
period
49
11/06/2019
The Namibian
Otjozondjupa loses
7,700 livestock to
drought
Between October 2018 and
March 2019, Okahandja,
Okakarara, Tsumkwe and
Omatako constituencies lost
large and small livestock due
to drought
04/09/2019
Namibian Sun
90,000 livestock
perish
Close to 90,000 died between
October 2018- June 2019 due
to drought
11/09/ 2019
The limited
times
In eastern Namibia, a
historic drought
starves men and
beasts
No rain has fallen in two years,
animals eating plastic detritus
12/09/2019
The Namibian
Namibia farmers raise
concern over
livestock predation
due to drought
Communal farmers in the
Kunene region say they have
had a significant increase in
livestock predation by lions
10/10/2019
New Era
Drought fuels stock
theft in Zambezi
A rise in stock theft incidences,
affecting communities with
livestock
Wild
animals
06/06/2019
The Namibian
Drought worsen
human-wildlife conflict
7 injured by hippos, 3 by
crocodile, 1 by lion and 1 by
leopard, 1246 lost animals to
predators and 1400 hectares
of crops to elephants
19/06/2019
An elite
Cafemedia
publisher
Drought in Namibia so
bad, Parks are
auctioning their wild
animals
Namibia selling 1000 wild
animals from national parks
14/08/2019
Namibian Sun
Lifeline for stranded
Chobe hippos
68 hippos are stranded in the
drying river
16/08/2019
Gondwana’s
newsroom
Drought in Etosha
park causes
headaches
Rainfall on average yield only
30% of the Etosha normal
rainfall, and part of the park
has been experiencing drought
for the last 3 years.
12/09/2019
The Namibian
Drought makes
livestock easy prey for
predators
Communal farmer who lost 25
of the 44 goats killed by lions
02/10/2019
Save the Rhino
The black rhinos
surviving
Damaraland’s drought
Euphobia damarana bush used
by rhino when other vegetation
died out.
50
Call for
support
02/04/2019
New Era
Namibia: Call to
support Namibian
drought disaster fund
reaches SA
Namibia is suffering the worst
drought in recent history
05/08/2019
NBC
President Geingob
calls on Namibians to
put measures in place
to mitigate effects of
drought
Mitigation for both human and
animals
12/08/2019
NBC
Prime Minister
appeals for
coordination among
donors to the drought
affected communities
Private donors to coordinate
with government to avoid
duplications
27/09/2019
New Era
Foresight needed to
remedy recurrent
drought
Status quo will continue for a
long time to come.
Discussion
Making it to 2020
In the year 2019, another wave of drought affected the country and this is now
described as the worst in the last 90 years in the country.
47
From the onset of 2019,
the rainfall was extremely poor, sporadic and erratic, and accompanied by high
temperatures and evaporation so that soil moisture levels were very low. As a result,
dam lakes and other reservoirs were extremely low and several boreholes across the
country dried up, especially in communal farming systems such as in Erongo, Omaheke,
Otjozondjupa and //Kharas regions.
48
Grazing land conditions were also observed to
have deteriorated to a very poor state in many parts of the country leading to severe
pressure on the grazing and to several livestock mortalities due to starvation. Thus, the
drought for 2019 was declared a national disaster and a national drought emergency
on 6 May 2019.
49
This was in accordance with the Disaster Risk Management Act 10 of
47
Tiri Masawi, “Namibia’s worst drought in 90 years”,
The Southern Times
, 07 October 2019,
https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/namibias-worst-drought-in-90-years [accessed 11 October,
2019]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “When drought threatens crops: NASA’s role
in famine warning”, NASA’s Earth Science News, 01 July 2019, https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2888/when-
drought-threatens-crops-nasas-role-in-famine-warnings/ [accessed 12 October, 2019].
48
Office of the Prime Minister, “Drought Response Plan, Disaster Risk Management”, Windhoek, Office of
the Prime Minister, 2019,
http://www.opm.gov.na/documents/108506/674201/Drought+response+plan/9cdad581-517c-4739-
9095-07f7098845d1 [accessed 10 October, 2019].
49
Kuuzeko Tjitemisa, “President declares state of emergency over drought”,
New Era
, 07 May 2019,
https://neweralive.na/posts/president-declares-state-of-emergency-over-drought [accessed 16 October,
2019].
51
2012, part IV, section 30, point 4 which states that the President can declare a National
Disaster when there is “a situation that requires immediate action to prevent, reduce or
mitigate a danger of major proportions that could result in death or serious harm to
persons or substantial damage to property or the environment.”
50
For the government to mitigate the drought impacts (i.e. food, water shortages & poor
grazing conditions) a Drought Response Plan was established and implemented
countrywide.
51
Interventions included food provision for the needy and drought affected
communities, livestock marketing incentives (such as support for lease of grazing,
transport to and from grazing, fodder and licks subsidies to sustain small stocks and
core breeding herds), water provision through water tankers, certified seed provision
and health and nutrition (i.e. drought relief food, comprising of grains, maize meal,
cooking oil and tinned fish). Several calls for support were made to local and
international supporters.
Drought, policy and practices
The priority during drought periods is survival. Consequently, a number of policies to
protect the environment and communities from the impact of climate change and
drought have been developed in Namibia. This includes the National Drought Policy
1997 that guided the National Climate Change Strategies and Action Plan 2013-2020,
and the objective of which is to facilitate the building of adaptive capacity to increase
climate change resilience and to enhance mitigation prospects to the benefit of
sustainable development.
52
Recommendations to the government since the early
drought of 1992/93 include working on drought preparedness and management,
infrastructure development, pastoral development, alternative livelihood systems, and on
policies and management.
53
A recent report by the Bank of Namibia, outlined what has
so far been possible and implemented, the challenges, opportunities and policy
priorities.
54
On food the report highlighted the need to improve crop growing and
promote feedlots, health and training. On water, the report stressed the need to direct
50
Disaster Risk Management Act, “Namibia: Disaster Risk Management Act, 2012 (act no. 10 of 2012)”,
Office of the Prime Minister, 2012: 34,
https://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/policies/v.php?id=28778 [accessed 06 October,
2019].
51
Office of the Prime Minister, “Drought Response”.
52
Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), “National Climate Change Strategies and Action Plan 2013 -
2020”, MET, 2015,
http://www.met.gov.na/files/files/National%20Climate%20Change%20Strategy%20&%20Action%20Plan%2
02013%20-%202020.pdf [accessed 28 October, 2019]
53
Moorsom et al.,
Coping with Aridity .
54
Bank of Namibia, “Feeding Namibia: Agricultural Productivity and Industrialisation”, Windhoek, The
Research Department of the Bank of Namibia, 21 September 2017,
https://www.bon.com.na/CMSTemplates/Bon/Files/bon.com.na/52/52c35978-5912-4429-9052-
3c8f5cc7971e.pdf [accessed 06 October, 2019].
52
50% of water resources to food production, and the other 50% to human, animal and
industrial use, where the 25% of the 50% for food production should be allocated to
fodder production for feedlots. However, the water sources recommended were rivers,
surface dams and boreholes. These are already in use in Namibia, and have failed
during drought periods, especially dams and boreholes. Considering that the suggestion
on water sources was made against a backdrop of climate change, aridity and
reoccurring drought in Namibia, it is clear that the impacts of droughts has yet to be
comprehensively understood.
Hope during future droughts?
For the government to reduce drought vulnerability and enhance capacities of locals to
survive future drought periods, strategies should focus on measures that are more long
term, and that can be applied with few as limitations and challenges as possible once
the systems have been set up. This could include: For the water sector, (1) extending
the use of desalinated water, through using solar power pumping mechanisms as the
country has long hours of sunshine and over 1500km of coastline. Currently the
desalination plant only supports activities at the coast such as mining. According to the
National News, a minimum of three desalination plants could cater for the needy areas
across the country, as at the moment the plant can produce up to 30,000 litres which is
enough for 300 families.
55
Extending the use of desalination services to the rest of the
country would not be without cost challenges due to high elevations (up to 2000m in
some areas, Fig. 1a), but this could be a permanent solution to the water crises during
drought periods once it is set up. (2) The use of rainwater harvesting systems for the
little rain that falls to the ground. The cost of adapting existing structures and new
houses may be prohibitive, and particularly for the poor in the case of roof water
harvesting, which requires permanent additional structures. Some estimates and
suggestions for potential ways of rainwater harvesting have been made by scholars for
many parts of Namibia.
56
(3) Tapping the recently discovered aquifer pools, especially in
the northern part of the country.
57
However, this must be undertaken with great caution
55
National News, “Namibia: Desalination to water crises”,
The Namibian
, 20 June 2019,
https://www.namibian.com.na/189790/archive-read/Desalination-solution-to-water-crisis [accessed 26
October, 2019].
56
Alexander Jokisch, Oliver Schulz, Isaac Kariuki, A. Krug von Nidda, Jutta Deffner, Stefan Liehr and Wilhelm
Urban,
Rainwater Harvesting in central-northern Namibia
, Frankfurt am Main, Institute for Social-Ecological
Research (ISOE), 2015; Festus Panduleni Nashima, Martin Hipondoka, Inekela Iiyambo and Johannes
Hambia, “The potential of rainwater harvesting: A case of the city of Windhoek, Namibia”,
Journal of Water
Resources and Ocean Science
, 2 (6), 2013: 170-174; Rosemary N. Shikangalah and Benjamin S. Mapani,
“Precipitation variations and shifts over time: Implication on Windhoek city water supply”,
Physics and
Chemistry of the Earth
,
Parts A/B/C
, 112, 2019: 103-112; Laura Woltersdorf, Alexander Jokisch and
Thomas Kluge, “Benefits of rainwater harvesting for gardening and implications for future policy in
Namibia”,
Water Policy
, 16 (1), 2014: 124-143.
57
Edgar Brandt, “Nearly N$6 million to fund Ohangwena aquifer”,
New Era
, 03, September 2018,
https://neweralive.na/posts/nearly-n6-million-to-fund-ohangwena-aquifer [accessed 14 October, 2019];
53
because during dire drought spells, excessive abstraction is likely to lead to hydrological
alteration which can critically affect the ecosystems the pools support, and can lead to
groundwater contamination. For the agriculture sector, (1) Using of hydroponic gardens
for human consumption and hydroponic fodder production for animals. While the
benefits of hydroponic gardens for human consumption are commonly known, benefits
for animals include lower use of water, minimal labour, high yield and high control of
quality, reduction of the need for the transportation of feed, lower use of fertilisers and
sometimes pesticides and herbicides.
58
(2) Replacing cattle with small livestock, and
using cattle breeds that are more drought resistance such as the Afrikaners species.
According to the Annelie Coleman, the advantages of farming Afrikaners include the fact
that the breed is an indiscriminate grazer and even resorts to browsing during drought
periods, is highly mobile so that it can use the available grazing area optimally, is low
maintenance, and has good resistance to diseases and internal and external parasites.
59
(3) Supplying more drought tolerant seeds for crops, legumes and vegetables to
communities so that they can adopt these on a more permanent basis and not only
when drought has occurred. (4) Conservation Agriculture (CA), which for various
reasons including the consecutive drought years, has not been very successful in
Namibia so far should be encouraged in the interests of better food security.
60
If
drought survival mechanisms are practised as ongoing solutions, the country is likely to
be drought ready to a certain extent when the next drought occurs.
Conclusion
Namibia is largely semi-arid to arid (70%) and the country is marginal for agricultural
production. With such environmental conditions, the effects of climate change are likely
to exacerbate the variability of precipitation and magnify the existing impacts. This will in
turn severely affect the ecosystems and reduce the country’s capacity to adapt to the
challenges of climate change. Namibia has experienced several flooding and prolonged
drought spells in the last decade and these have most severely affected the roughly
70% of the population that relies on the agricultural sector. A combination of lack of
rainfall and low soil moisture led to a severe and prolonged drought in 2019 which was
ranked as the most severe drought in the last 90 years. It resulted in real hardship and
significantly affected many livelihoods, especially among the most vulnerable communities.
National News, “The underground water source in Ohangwena region discovered in 2007 is said to be of
great value”,
The Namibian
, 24 February 2015, https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?page=archive-
read&id=133948 [accessed 16 October, 2019].
58
Meat Corporation of Namibia, “Hydroponics Fodder Production? A glimmer of hope farming”,
www.meatco.com.na, 30 August 2019, https://www.meatco.com.na/news/559/Hydroponics-Fodder-
Production-a-glimmer-of-hope-for-farming/ [accessed 07 October, 2019].
59
Coleman, “Breeding cattle”.
60
Deon Schlechter, “Conservation agriculture still struggling after thirteen years”,
New Era Farmer Forum
,
03 July 2019, https://neweralive.na/posts/conservation-agriculture-still-struggling-after-thirteen-years
[accessed 12 October, 2019].
54
The drought led to significantly reduced crop yields, so that at least one third of the
country’s population was without adequate supplies of food.
All hope was not lost as interventions were put in place. However, by the last quarter of
2019, the food relief was still not sufficient to feed the affected population. There is still
hope for the future as there are various measures that can be taken to navigate through
drought periods. With practice, and with more suggestions and lessons from other
countries that are facing the same situation, Namibia could learn to survive the long
drought periods, especially at the household level – practice makes perfect. This study
concluded that the 2019 drought was a major warning that the country should start
planning ahead, and put more effort into training people to survive the situation. Climate
change projections anticipate more frequent, more intense and longer drought spells.
Therefore, survival should be the main focus.
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