JOHANNESBURG, 15 February 2008 (IRIN) - Swaziland's increasing vulnerability to a seemingly endless string of manmade and natural disasters has prompted a new approach to improving the speed and effectiveness of the response.

"We are really suffering. We are trying everything we can but we need help - it [disaster] seems permanent," Dr Ben Nsibandze, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, told IRIN.

After a devastating drought hit all four of the country's regions last year, withering up to 80 percent of crops in some areas, 2008 started with extremely heavy rains, hailstorms and wildfires.

"Disaster risk levels are spiralling up due to extreme vulnerability to increasing hazards such as droughts, environmental degradation, windstorms, floods and hailstorms," said Tendai Makanza, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) focal point at the UN Development Programme in Swaziland.

The mountain kingdom has been working on DRR for some years now. "We have made some progress," Nsibandze said, but pointed out that resource constraints, caused partially by the need for continuous response to calamity, had held back the implementation of a 2006 plan. "Almost half the population was affected by drought in that year," he said.

Makanza said DRR has now become a national priority, "Especially after His Majesty the King's Parliamentary opening speech, where he spoke about how the people of Swaziland are dependent on aid for DRR and how the government needed to respond better."

Efforts to address HIV/AIDS - another "continuous disaster" - meant that any resources available were spread very thin, Nsibandze said. With HIV prevalence of 33.4 percent among people aged between 15 and 49, the country has the world's highest infection rate; life expectancy has dropped from nearly 60 years in the 1990s to just over 30 years at present.

No time to catch your breath

According to the UN Environment Programme and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Swaziland was hit by drought in 1981, '82, '91 to '96 and 2001 to 2007. The areas at high risk, or severely affected by drought, are in the Lowveld and lower Middleveld regions, where rainfall is often very low even in 'normal' rainy seasons.

Other notable disasters in recent years include incessant lightning, hailstorms and strong winds during rainy seasons, a cholera outbreak in 1982, cyclone Dominia in 1984, periodic earth tremors in 1999 and 2000, and torrential rains and floods in 2000.

Dominia affected up to two-thirds of Swaziland's declining population of less than a million. After that, "the worst storm in 20 years hit the country in January 2005, affecting about 100,000 people, causing widespread damage and killing about 30 people," Makanza said.

Changing weather patterns

The effects of the 2007 drought persist, and aid agencies estimate that up to 40 percent of the population is dependant on some form of food assistance.

In Swaziland's eastern Lubombo region, near the Mozambique border, Phile Gama said, "We should patch those," referring to the gaping holes in the grass roof that covers her stick house. "But if the rain would come we'd be so happy we'd just lie in bed and get wet."

Makanza commented that "Lubombo region is our driest region, perhaps the one that has suffered most from global warming. The UNDP, together with the GEF (Global Environment Facility) and national partners, drafted a climate change project specifically targeted at supporting the Lubombo region."

The plan is meant to ensure sustainable water provision in the region, and improve food security through agricultural services and training. "We are hoping to receive funding by the end of the first quarter. With increasing manifestation of global warming, it is clear that hydro-meteorological hazards will continue to wreak havoc in poverty stricken countries such as Swaziland."

Changing the response

Nsibandze said government agencies, UN organisations and NGOs were currently discussing Swaziland's DRR approach and looking for the necessary funding to implement projects, and Makanza noted that "The Government of Swaziland embraced the need for a paradigm shift from a mere focus on emergency response/relief to identification of root causes of risks - hence the DRR approach also within the context of climate risk management."

According to her, "We are redefining disaster. We believe that disasters should not be limited to drought, they are much more comprehensive than that. We have included floods, fires, HIV/AIDS, rising poverty levels, declining national capacities and institutions to provide social services and safety nets, and of course climate change related issues."

She noted that "We feel that in order for communities to better manage disaster, they should be able to look at all their vulnerabilities against their abilities to be able to mitigate, eliminate and respond better to all their potential risks."

Continuous flows of assistance meant that Swaziland's history of disaster had not made communities as resilient as many had hoped. "Most of the national partners who work daily with the local communities, especially under the food aid programmes, seem to feel that communities have increasingly become dependent on aid," Makanza explained.

"Communities should not wait for handouts or for policy frameworks to change and deliver, especially when a disaster occurs. Experience has shown that these wheels tend to move slowly. We are trying to ensure that communities protect themselves independently and reliably."

A long road ahead

The DRR road ahead was not without substantial challenges: poor legislative frameworks, poor comprehension and appreciation of DRR issues by policy makers, poor technical capacities, limited financial resources, a lack of a unified approach by stakeholders and a non-comprehensive approach to DRR could undermine the full potential of effective DRR.

Getting communities to change their ways presented a major obstacle. "They need to need to be informed about it [climate change]. However, it should be acknowledged that Swaziland has very traditional communities, and changing their perception, though possible, will take a lot of investment, strategic lobbying and advocacy, Makanza said.

Until that perception changes, or alternatives present themselves, Swazis will continue to brave the weather. "If we had money, where would we go? To town to get jobs? There are no jobs in town," Gama said, referring to the Swazi reality of 40 percent unemployment.

Her husband has been struggling to find work in the country's second city, Manzini, for over two years. "He decided to leave home after our maize plants died again under the sun. I suppose if he finds work that is stable we will join him. But now we stay here, because this is home."

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