ALM UNDP

Adapting to Water Shortages in Arid Namibia

By Servaas van den Bosch

“Normally it rains this time of year, but not a drop has fallen,” complains farmer Paulus Amutenya. “My crops are burning on the field.” It’s mid‐November in Outapi, a small farming town in Northern Namibia, not far from the Angolan border. Outapi is always hot, but this year the rains that cool the soil and allow crops to germinate are exceptionally late. For weeks now farmers have been praying for clouds to appear in the clear blue sky.

‘Tate’ Paulus wipes the sweat of his face and overlooks his few hectares of wilting crops. Groups of women dot the field, weeding between the tomatoes or watermelons. Unlike most subsistence farmers in the area Amutenya employs around a hundred casual workers who depend on him, and he is worried if he will be able to continue to employ them. “Without rain, plants are more susceptible to pests and eventually they succumb to heat stress.” He points to a watermelon with scorched yellow patches. “These melons are naturally covered by their leaves so they ripen nice and evenly, but now the leaves are burnt and the melons are ripe on the top, but not at the bottom.”

He blames the changes in climate.

“Temperatures are rising and rains are becoming more and more unpredictable over the years, but what can I do,” he shrugs.

Farming in Namibia, where the Namib and Kalahari deserts meet, has never been easy. The driest country in sub‐Saharan Africa receives a pitiful 270 millimetres of downpour per year on average. Of this 83 percent evaporates as soon as it hits the ground. Climatologists predict temperatures in the country will rise with 1 to 6 degree in the next several decades, while rainfall could drop another 200 millimetres. Already, in the past few years, rains have been erratic leading to alternating heavy floods and dry spells.

The consequences are devastating for a country where 70 percent of the people to some extent depend on agriculture.

To help farmers adapt to climate change, the Country Pilot Partnership (CPP), an alliance of seven Ministries in Namibia supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has started a three year adaptation pilot project in the area.

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