Maputo — At least 119,500 people in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza are regarded as in an "emergency situation" because of the drought that has hit the province for the second consecutive year, reports Wednesday's issue of the independent newsheet "Vertical".
Maize fields have withered in the scorching heat, and lack of rain. Along the banks of the Changane river, a tributary of the Limpopo, the paper notes, one can note field after field of withered crops.
Small dams have dried up, and the only rain the province has seen in recent months has been light showers - quite insufficient for crops such as maize.
According to Felix Tivane, Gaza provincial coordinator of the country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), the "most critical areas" are the districts of Guija, Massingir, Mabalane, Cicualacuala and Chigubo, all in the Gaza interior, in the area usually referred to as the upper Limpopo.
"The drought victims in Gaza", said Tivane, "have no food reserves, except for those living near the banks of the Limpopo, Save and Nguaneze rivers, and some small lakes. They manage some agricultural production by resorting to the humidity of these areas".
What has proved a life saver has been the food-for-work programme, which covers about 80 per cent of the 119,500 people affected. Under the programme basic foodstuffs, such as grains, beans and vegetable oil, are provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and by various NGOs. In return for the food, the beneficiaries work on building access roads, drainage channels, schools, clinics and houses for teachers and health workers.
Many of those working on these programmes are women heads of household (Gaza has a high percentage of its men working in South Africa). The deal is that one member of each household works, and then receives food for five people - 75 kilos of grain, 7.5 kilos of beans and 3.5 litres of vegetable oil per month.
Tivane estimates the food needs for drought victims in Gaza at 1,792 tonnes of grain, 179 tonnes of beans and 89,6 tonnes of oil a month. He said the government has been recommending that peasants switch to drought resistant crops such as sweet potatoes and cassava, and that the farmers also plant cash crops such as cashew trees. Tivane claimed that experimental planting of cashews in Chicualacuala was giving "positive results".
