Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane, and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality Mayor, on Wednesday met with citrus-producing farmers from the Gamtoos River Valley region to find solutions to the ongoing drought distress that continues to threaten the sector, including jobs and the livelihoods of thousands in the region.
The meeting heard how the Kouga Dam, which in 2015 was overflowing at 100% and was now at a dangerous 4.4%, this despite painstaking efforts to conserve the critical resource of water, through restrictions on irrigation, with as many as 40 farmers in the region already said to have used up their 20% quota of water usage from the dam.
While the provincial government has spent millions, through its partnership with farmers, to develop boreholes as part of mitigating the ravages of the ongoing draught in parts of the province, the results have been mixed with inconsistencies on both the quality and volume of water retrieved.
Farmers in the region have called on Premier Mabuyane to rope in the national government to investigate mechanisms for improved water catchment as well as storage capacity to avert what they termed an ‘‘obvious disaster facing the communities’’ of the region.
Premier Mabuyane undertook to have the matter urgently escalated to the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC), which coordinates the development, maintenance, and implementation and monitoring of the national infrastructure plan; as well as coordinates the determination of priorities for infrastructure development and designates strategic integrated projects (SIPS).
The Premier also directed the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR), to lead the setting up of a provincial technical team that would conduct a survey and draft solutions, which would be presented to the national government.