DA MPL’s give their opinions regarding drought relief
The drought is making it more expensive to operate, and that cost is being passed onto the consumer.
DURING a debate on the drought in Gauteng, two members of the provincial legislature (MPL’s) each delivered a speech in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Tuesday, November 8.
Ina Cilliers had the following to say:
“Innovation is the key to mitigate the drought’s effect on the Gauteng agricultural sector.”
• In Gauteng we have the talent, the resources and the technology to implement effective strategies to farm and live in a semi-arid environment, in the midst of a drought that’s never going to abate completely.
• Every time you flush a toilet, nine litres of quality water is lost. Municipalities could start exploring dry sanitation solutions and rewarding communities for grey water recycling, the use of irrigation systems linked to weather stations and diversifying water resources, instead of relying solely on rainwater.
• Re-directing resources to fix and maintain reticulation infrastructure; and implementing a rapid response approach to leaks, has worked well in certain Western Cape municipalities – where water losses stand at only 14 per cent.
• Drought relief must expand from drilling boreholes and providing fodder, to providing farmers with permanent organic soil cover; drought resistant crop cultivars; no-till mechanisation and precision farming applications. It’s already much easier to download an extension officer from the app store, than to see a live one from government.
• Government is still advocating agricultural methodology that’s old, outdated and downright bad for the farming economy.
Janho Engelbrecht added the following:
“The poor will be hit hardest by Government’s inaction over drought”
• Vast amounts of food are consumed in Gauteng, as the most densely populated of all our provinces. The people of this province are therefore dependent on others for most of our food, and it’s precisely this dependency that puts us at risk.
• The drought is making it more expensive for farming to operate and that cost is being passed on to the consumer. This could have been avoided if government took urgent action and declared the drought a national disaster earlier this year, freeing up funding that would have resulted in better supply and lower prices.
• While we may not yet be experiencing food insecurity, we’re already seeing increased community and household food insecurity amongst the poorest of the poor in Gauteng. Food price inflation increases hurt the poor when particular staple foods, along with bread and cereals increase by 16 per cent; fruit by 20 per cent and vegetables by 15.4 per cent.
• We need real solutions to a crisis that has the potential to destabilise our province.
Government could not be reached for comment.
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