Hopes Wilt as African Drought Crushes Tiny Kingdom
Date: 10-Feb-04
Country: LESOTHO
Author: Andrew Quinn
Solitary figures wander the wilted fields, hacking at the bone-dry soil with hoes in an attempt to coax a summer harvest that is already far too late.
"The cattle are beginning to die; there is not enough to eat. There is no water," said Letsie, chief of this village of some 300 families in southern Lesotho, one of the countries worst hit by an increasingly desperate drought that has left millions hungry across southern Africa.
"I tell my people we must pray. Maybe God will give us rain," Letsie said. And if, as for the past three years, the rains don't come?
"I see only death," Letsie said.
Lesotho, a tiny mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa, lies at the heart of what aid workers describe as an almost unprecedented regional disaster that threatens more than 6 million people with severe food shortages.
From Zambia and Malawi south to South Africa, rains have been inadequate and harvests meager. In Zimbabwe, where an estimated 5 million people need food aid, the crisis has been exacerbated by President Robert Mugabe's policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
In many countries including Lesotho, agricultural production has been hit by Africa's devastating AIDS epidemic as farm workers fall sick and die - leaving their families with nothing to sell but their farm implements.
Lesotho's drought, which began in 2001, has not yet been directly blamed for any deaths, and there is still enough water to drink.
But officials fear the situation could turn dramatically worse for the country's 2 million people as rains fail, cattle die, stockpiles empty and aid falls short of expectations. "This year might be worse than last year, which makes us very, very concerned indeed," said Agriculture Minister Rakoro Phororo.
TRADITIONAL FARMING SOWS PROBLEMS
Ha Lepolesa, about 60 miles south of the capital Maseru, is a case study of Lesotho's woes.
Several miles away, the commercial farms of South Africa produce maize despite the regional drought. But in Ha Lepolesa, the fields are almost completely barren, due in part to traditional farming techniques which have left the soil infertile even in good weather.
Huge gullies carved into the landscape are a legacy of erosion and desertification. Tiny plots, each farmed by one family, produce little to spare for a community in crisis. And crops are not rotated, leeching nutrients from the soil which in dry weather turns to dust.
Borehole wells, which used to be dotted across the village, have gone dry one by one. There is only one pump still working for an estimated 2,000 people.
"This used to be a good place to live," said Ishmael Mokhothu, a 68-year-old farmer. "We had rain and we had crops. Now it is not so good. Young people are leaving, to go anywhere they can make money."
Most people in Ha Lepolesa now rely on foreign food donations to survive. Many say they can only get by if they share the small rations they get - and they didn't get any in January because donations were insufficient.
DONORS UNMOVED
In the nearby town of Mafeteng, workers unload sacks of cornmeal, oil and beans as part of the aid program organized by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The most vulnerable people, including AIDS patients, the elderly and young families, are still eligible to collect - but the vast majority of the "hungry well" are not.
The WFP has helped to feed some 375,000 people in Lesotho over the past year and estimates that as many as 700,000 will need food help in the coming year.
The UN aid group has asked for donations of about 38,000 tons of food to help feed Lesotho, while Lesotho government officials believe as much as 58,000 tons will be needed.
But donations - particularly of important non-food items such as seeds, fertilizer and machinery - have been below expectations.
Regionally, only $28 million has been donated to the WFP's call for $220 million in non-food aid, making