Twin crises conspire to befoul 2015 :: Mmegi Online

When a drought was last declared in 2013, the urbanites among the 500,000 or so residents of Greater Gaborone blithely went on with their lives, while their rural contemporaries clung onto government assistance as their economies collapsed. As another drought looms this year, the drying up of Gaborone Dam and the tenuous counter-measures mirror the desperation in the fields. Mmegi Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI, reports on crises that have bridged the urban/rural divide

In July 2013, government declared a drought, following a 22-day nationwide assessment that found that while a high area of crops had been planted, a long dry spell had caused general failure. Within the next two months, the two teams annually dispatched by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will again traverse the country, but this time it appears the exercise could be academic.

In the North East District, 872 farmers ploughed a total of 3,543.8 hectares of land in 2014, being a fraction of the 17,000 hectares of land from 60,300 farmers in 2013.

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