R35 Million Needed For Matzikama Water Project

- Wilfred Stephan

How have water restrictions affected farmers in the Matzikama region?

The region was declared a disaster area in August last year. From then until March, farmers received only 14% of their water quotas. Since then, they’ve received no water at all. Farms currently have access to water for household purposes every third week.

It’s a terrible situation, as 700 farms, housing farmer and farmworker families, as well as nine farm schools, are dependent on canals for drinking water. People are desperate. We’ve received reports of people drinking standing water when the canals aren’t running.

How has the water shortage affected agricultural production?

The majority of farmers didn’t plant any vegetables so that they could free up water for their permanent crops. Under normal conditions, there are 20 trucks a day coming and going from Vredendal to take vegetables to Cape Town, but now there’s hardly one truck a week.

Wine grape and table grape production is expected to be down by 50% to 60% this season, but some farmers have picked less than 30% of their normal yields. Then, in December, a heatwave exacerbated the water shortage and caused large-scale fruit losses.

The outlook for next season is poor, regardless of whether rain falls now, because the vineyards are experiencing severe water stress. We estimate that production will again be half the norm.

About 80% of our farmers are in financial trouble. It is likely to take them up to five years to recover. One of them committed suicide as a result of the financial stress brought on by the drought.

How will this affect the local economy?