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Let’s introduce the culture of preserving rain water
2006-04-17 09:19:38
By Rayner Ngonji
With this year’s bitter drought experiences where the government had to cough out part of its revenues to support famine stricken families, traditional farming techniques coupled with simple technology need to be ’’resurrected’’ to offer a solution to the problem.
Some 4 million people were reported to be facing acute food shortage by January this year requiring about 100,000 tonnes to offset the descrepancy.
Ages of old farming techniques coated with simple technology could be of much help to the small scale farmers in the struggle of coping with the vagaries of weather.
In the drought prone areas of Shinyanga, Singida, Dodoma and part of Mwanza, some 600 km away from Dar es Salaam, pits could be dug about knee-deep high or some centimeters in the soil strata until more stony ground is reached.
The stony soil allows water to flow slowly down the hill, beneath the surface. This means that the water caught in the pits infiltrates into the soil, rather than running off and causing erosion.
During the rainy season a lot of water is being wasted either due to lack of materials to store it or technological know-how to preserve it or just being ignored for the sake of it.
The result of such poor attitude is the uncontrollable drought situations claiming hundreds of heads of cattle and causing havoc to individuals.
I always come close to pains whenever I recall a situation where there is heavy rainfall like the 1998 El Nino but nothing is done to tap the resourceful liquid and preserve it for future use.
The Tanzania Electric Supply Co. (TANESCO) went even to an extent of opening up its gates at Mtera dam to let the water escape forgetting that preserving it at another dam would have saved the precarious situations tenfold.
Under the traditional farming techniques, water is usually delivered straight to the roots of crops through the locally made clay pipes. A dramatic difference to crop production normally follows suit once the technology is operational.
Less water is needed, as none is lost through evaporation or run off, and the frequency of watering it is quite often reduced.
Local businesses could this way be boosted with women who are already skilled in working with clay and firing pottery, be involved in making the pipes.
The civil has for decades suffered intermittently from severe drought, with that of 1974 as the worst on record. Population densities are soaring whilst land holdings are a distant dream amongst the poor.
Land falls into the lowest categories of agricultural potential, suffering finance limitation to develop but at the same time, drought experience after every five years has throughout been an obstacle to every strategy hatched out.
It’s against this background that several attempts have been launched to fight drought and ensure food security.
But all the initiatives have failed to provide a lasting solution to the problem over the years.
Although people in drought stricken areas appear to have taken interest in dry land farming following the proposal, efforts to develop the interests are not only mild, but need a government push.
Introduction of farmers clubs and women garden groups engaged in traditional farming techniques, could act as protection zone in the entire question of fighting drought and famine.
The government should do all it can to promote such efforts for better results. Such endeavors have proved successful in several other developing countries where government intervention has worked. The methods could be spread and shared among farmers through forums, seminars and radio broadcasts.
That is one way of conserving water during rains. However, a culture of collecting rain water and preserving it in special underground tanks could play significant role in the issue.
Usangi Division in Mwanga District is already practising the system and its doing fairly well.
Whether we like it or not a mechanism has to be worked out where maybe from next year the culture of preserving rain water would be introduced and promoted.
The government should launch a special programme to solve drought problems once and for all.
rgonji@guardian.co.tz
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