The Gamtoos Valley was once a fertile landscape carved by the deep river from which it gets its name and which is said to derive from the roaring, guttural sound made by the waters during heavy floods. Today, the river runs dry and the Eastern Cape valley lies parched -- thirsty for rains that don’t come, watching its once lush and colourful citrus and vegetable farms die.
Since 2016, drought has advanced rapidly through the region – even faster than in Cape Town, whose lack of water makes international headlines. The giant Kouga Dam which feeds the local towns and surrounding farms on Monday reached a historical low of 7.1 percent with its supply expected to last just up until the middle of March.
When the water runs out, it will be Day Zero and what happens next is anybody’s guess. “You worry but what will it help? You have to have faith,” says vegetable farmer Leon De Koning, adding that he believes God will help. Farming in the Loerie area, De Koning, 49, plants up to 250 hectares of vegetables a year using borehole water to ensure his business remained sustainable. He supplies most of the Pick n’ Pay, Shoprite Checkers and OK stores in the Eastern Cape.
UNDER THREAT
The Kouga Dam, constructed in the 1960's, supplies water to hundreds of farmers, schools and residents in the surrounding towns of Hankey, Loerie and Patensie – settlements that once rested comfortably amid their striking fields of bright green citrus trees. The communities depend on the multi-million-rand agricultural industry now under threat.
Driving through Patensie, where everyone seems to know everyone else, we reach the double-arched,125 million cubic meter dam built to serve around 35,000 people in the area. Where once dark waters would have languished, now there is only the concrete walls and shallow pools punctuated by one, small boat.
"I always tell people, this is the lowest the dam has ever been and the only time it was lower was when the dam was being built before it was filled,” Pierre Joubert, CEO of the Gamtoos Irrigation Board (GIB) tells the African News Agency. "Since it has been operational it's the lowest ever in 47 years. We have more problems than Cape Town. Our Day-Zero is in March. It's a crisis and the crisis is getting worse," said Joubert.
Arguably due to its international renown as a tourist mecca, Cape Town’s water crisis has made global headlines as it edges ever closer to becoming the first major city in a globally warmed world to run out of water.
But the Eastern Cape and its urban core of Nelson Mandela Bay is heading faster toward disaster. Last May, the Kouga region was declared a disaster area water restricted to 60 litres per person per day. Cape Town has only this month cut their allowance to 50 litres from 87.
The water crisis in the Gamtoos Valley intensified about six months ago. Last July, Kouga dam levels were recorded at 18.51 percent and the GIB announced that farmers would have their annual water allocation cut 60 percent this year.
The local farmers scaled down planting and reduced their water consumption.
Chairperson the Gamtoos Agricultural Association, Petrus Du Preez, says that about eight million cartons of citrus fruits are exported by the area’s farmers during the harvesting season which runs from April to August. What kind of crops can be expected when water is so scarce?
"At this stage, we are positive and hopeful,” said Du Preez, 68, who is a citrus farmer of 45 years.
“We haven't started putting workers out of jobs and we will for as long as possible keep workers in employment. It's not only us the farmers that the drought is affecting, it's the community in townships who derive an income and it affects schools. There is no other economy here other than agriculture," said Du Preez.
-African News Agency (ANA)
