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Today the world celebrates "The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought." This day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, of which Swaziland is a signatory. The theme for this year’s celebrations is "Water Resource Management and Desertification." Yonge Nawe recognises this day and is urging people to reflect on what they are doing to ensure sustainable management of water resources and rangelands. 

Desertification is an environmental problem that is both the reason behind and the consequence of numerous other ecological concerns, including the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of water resources. Desertification has a debilitating impact on the capacity of populations and communities to sustain the means needed for livelihood.

Swaziland like her counterpart countries in southern Africa is experiencing the worst disasters namely drought and poverty that are ravaging thousands of Swazis. Swaziland has more than 200 000 starving people and about 66% of the population live below the international poverty line. Erratic rainfall stunted this year’s crop of maize, which is the national staple diet. The disaster worsened, as El Nino weather conditions brought dry, rainless weather and another devastating drought. The rainfall compromised food security not only for people but livestock, ecosystems and Swaziland’s water quality. 

Water is a precious, finite and scarce resource that many Swazis take for granted in their daily lives. Water is, however, vulnerable to national and local factors such as growing demands of urban and rural populations, worsening water pollution, land and catchments degradation, destruction of aquatic ecosystems and greater competition over water. Prolonged drought has further worsened this situation. 

The drier areas of the country generally receive between 240 to 700mm of rainfall per year, which usually occur as heavy short-lived storms. Most of the rainwater is lost due to run-off and soil erosion. The availability of water in drought prone areas of the country is definitely a serious problem since rural communities fully depend on the availability of water for their livelihood. In this regard, water resource management in the rural areas is fundamentally important to preserve reforestation, communal woodlots, agro-forestry, soil and water conservation measures. 

Desertification directly affects some 250 million people worldwide. Combating desertification will require both top-down solutions from governments and bottom-up approaches from communities. It is important to manage the drylands of the world in a manner that can increase overall food security while maintaining the sustainable livelihoods of the people. Stopping desertification would necessitate reversing the process of land degradation and protecting soil, water and biological resources.

Published in the interest of the environment and sustainable development.