Droughts are old news

When the good rains come and the frogs come out, it is easy for people to forget the poverty and misery that intensely dry periods have brought over the centuries

- Roelof Bezuidenhout.

In 1949, the traveller, researcher and author, Laurence Green, noted in his book In the Land of the Afternoon that there was something about South Africa’s weather and climate that fired controversial discussions and inspired scientists. He based his observation on articles, writings and other publications about the country’s meteorology dating back to 1885.

But even long before that, according to Green, many were already convinced that South Africa was drying up. The reasons for this included deforestation, particularly the destruction of trees such as the wild olive. This was said to have led to the disappearance of fountains. Overgrazing was also blamed for changes in vegetation and ensuing climate change.

Green mentions the big drought of the late 1920s in the Prince Albert district in the Karoo, the worst even the oldest farmer could remember, with only 75mm of rain recorded in 36 months. However, he writes that if those senior citizens could have discussed this view with their great-grandparents, they would simply have heard the same old story about previous droughts being so severe.

Still, during the big drought, farmers had to leave their farms to find work on the roads at half-a-crown a day. Old men who had owned cars before the drought now had to sweat under an unforgiving sun for a plate of food. Schoolchildren fainted from hunger, and the veld was covered in the skeletons of livestock.

But according to Green, history does not support the notion, which surfaces during every drought, that the country has become drier than ever before. Apparently, Jan van Riebeeck often complained about the long dry seasons in the Cape. On the day he landed, in fact, he was shocked by the cracks in the ground and the dry riverbeds.