Contents
Drought and flood risk in Namibia ................................................................................................................ 2
1.
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Drought history and drought patterns.................................................................................................... 2
2.
Disaster Risks Management in Namibia ............................................................................................... 2
2.1 Floods ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
3.
National food security........................................................................................................................... 3
4.
Existing policies ..................................................................................................................................... 4
4.1 National drought Policy .......................................................................................................................... 4
4.2 National Disaster Risk Management Policy ............................................................................................ 5
5.
Role and Responsibility in Flood management ..................................................................................... 6
6.
Planned future intervention ................................................................................................................. 7
6.1 Drought: Climate change and food security ........................................................................................... 7
6.2 Flood Management ................................................................................................................................. 7
7.
Annual budgets ..................................................................................................................................... 8
7.1 Agriculture/Drought................................................................................................................................ 8
7.2 Floods 2008-2009.................................................................................................................................... 9
8.1 Future cost projections ......................................................................................................................... 11
9.
Namibia’s subsidies programme ......................................................................................................... 12
9.1 Key policy issues.................................................................................................................................... 12
10.
References ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Drought and flood risk in Namibia:
1. Introduction
1.1 Drought history and drought patterns
With most of the Namibia regions expect less than 300 mm annual rainfall, drought has tended
to be an imprecise term in Namibia. Drought tends to be declared in particular localities rather
than nationally and, hence, there is not a definitive list of drought years in Namibia. Major
droughts affecting large portions of the country are said to have occurred in far back in 1930s
and for an extended period in the 1960s, culminate in the 1970/71 season which was declared
the most devastating drought experienced to date in the region. The next disaster drought
came to occurred from 1982-1984, and this was a results of poor rainfall in those three
consecutive years, and the last one in 1992/93 (Sweet, 1998). However, the Namibian
government has continued to pay out drought relief subsidies in some part of the country every
year since 1991, and a national drought was declared again in 1996 and implemented in 1997
and its still acting as National drought task force. In some areas, the 1995/96 drought was
considered worse than the 1992/93’s one but it attracted less publicity and international
attention than the 1992/93 drought in the newly independent Republic of Namibia (Sweet,
1998). Drought is mainly a natural disaster that caused crop failures, livestock losses and severe
socio-economic interference to humans. And even though drought is a regular occurrence to
Namibian environment, local droughts are mainly different due to deviations in the local
weather pattern. In comparison, droughts of a regional nature affect large parts of the southern
African subcontinent and are mainly due to changes in global weather patterns. Not only
regional droughts are more severe than local droughts, usually with a devastating effect on the
agricultural sector and the Namibian economy, but they also last longer. However, they are less
frequent, occurring cyclically every two to seven years, and they have a comparatively bad
impact on our national agriculture (Axel, n d).
2. Disaster Risks Management in Namibia
In Namibia, events like droughts and floods occur more frequently due to the increase in
temperature which is predicted in the whole country. Large amount of rainfall is expected to
occur in a short period time of rain season, due to the predicted increase of late summer
convective rainfall over Namibia. Therefore this might have implications for the frequency of
floods in northern regions, mainly Caprivi region, Ohangwena, omusati, Oshana and small
portion of Oshikoto Region. Directorate of Emergency Management (DEM) in the Office of
Prime Minister (OPM) and Regional Emergency Management Units (REMUs) and other NGOs
organization in Namibia are playing major role in addressing and responding to the issues of
disaster risk management. In line with the decentralization policy the intention of the National
Drought Policy was to establish emergency management structures at constituency and village
levels. Although REMUS engages with traditional leaders in their regions to respond to drought
and floods, these structures at constituency and village levels are in reality and not in actually in
place.
2.1 Floods
Since January 2008, heavy rains falls in northern and north eastern Namibia, compounded by
severe rainfall in the neighbouring countries of Angola and Zambia, have led to flooding in the
Six regions along Namibia’s northern border (Caprivi, Kavango, Oshana, Oshikoto, Ohangwena,
and Omusati), home to the majority of the rural poor in the country, were the worst affected.
The floods affected 350,000 people (nearly 17% of the country’s population), caused the death
of 102 people, and displaced over 13,500 persons, of which 9,200 were relocated into camps.
Many health facilities and schools were either flooded or inaccessible. Sewage ponds
overflowed, posing a serious threat for increased cases of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera.
More than 50% of the roads in the affected areas were damaged, and harvest production is
expected to fall by 63%. As a result, 67% of the poor households would face an estimated food
gap of 20-30%, (Ocha, 2009).
3. National food security
In Namibia, food prices rose in May 2008 by 16.5 per cent compared to prices in May 2007, and
by 40 per cent compared to May 2005. The driving forces of the current price spike of staple
and other food products can largely be found in the regional and global context. However, food
prices in Namibia increased less than in other countries due to a conservative pricing
agreement between producers and millers. Roughly 1.5 million of Namibia’s total population of
about 2 million depend on subsistence farming for their household food security. While the
rural areas are badly affected by climate change conditions the other part of the population,
especially poor urban dwellers, are more vulnerable to food price increases. With such large
numbers of households dependent on farming for survival in an arid environment with high
rainfall variability, rural livelihoods in the flood affected regions can be described as very
unstable. Harvests' yields are often very low even in normal season and most poor households
are usually food insecure for months before the next crop harvest according to the Regional
Poverty Profile reports. Therefore, with the recurrent flood-affected seasons, the poor
households are more vulnerable by the impacts of floods.
As the affected regions by floods are the main producers of Mahangu (pearl millet) and maize
grain and thus contributing to the strategic food reserves for the country. Disruption of farming
activities as was the case in 2009 seriously impacted on both the national and individual
household food security. The flood affected regions reported destroyed crops and damaged or
washed away food reserves on which rural populations rely. Its indicates that crop harvest is
expected to reduce by between 63% and 67% for the poor households who will face an
estimated food gap of 20-30%, (Vulnerability Assessment Report, 2008)
Namibia as a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU); and has give up its
control over trade policy to a large extent to SACU. Namibia is also a member of the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Agreement. Namibia has initialled an
Interim Economic Partnership Agreement that allows duty-free and quota-free access to the
European Union (EU) market. Namibia is a founding member of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and has been declared a net food importing developing country (NFIDC), a designation
that will provide Namibia with more policy space in order to increase national food production.
Agriculture and agricultural development is one of the key policies of the Namibian
government. The agricultural sector’s performance is strongly dependent on weather
conditions; hence food self-sufficiency varies between 35 per cent and 75 per cent of total
demand. The government has implemented and continues to implement a set of measures to
counteract the effects of climate change and rising food prices on the national food security
situation of Namibia. Some of these are the usage of natural water courses for irrigation
farming, the construction of national storage capacity for staple grains, increased long-term
production through title deeds and targeted extensions, and targeted food assistance.
Furthermore, the government is controlling the import of staple food and horticultural products
in order to increase food security and exploit Namibia’s agricultural production potential.
4. Existing policies
4.1 National drought Policy
Prior to independence in 1990, Namibia was administered by the Republic of South Africa
which had no definite policy or structure for dealing with drought in Namibia, but rather a
series of subsidies and relief measures applied as and when considered necessary. This
situation continued after independence and there was no official drought policy in Namibia
until 1997 when the National Drought Policy was established. Even though the national drought
policy and strategy draft was finalized in 1997, it was not approved by Cabinet until May 1998
due to certain circumstances, Therefore the restrictions on drought relief assistance
incorporated in the policy will not be applied until 1999, (Sweet, 1998).
The policy has eight useful objectives in addressing the issues of drought in Namibia :
-To ensure that household food security is not compromised by drought,
- Encouraging and supporting farmers to adopt self-reliant approaches to drought risk.
- To minimized the degradation of the natural resources base during drought
-to enable rural inhabitants and the agricultural sector to recover quickly following
drought
- To ensure that the healthy status of all Namibians is not threatened by the effects of
drought.
- Finance drought relief programmes efficiently and effectively by established an
independent and permanent National Drought Fund
-To preserve adequate reproductive capacity in livestock herds in affected areas during
drought periods
4.2 National Disaster Risk Management Policy
The National Disaster Risk Management (NDRM) policy of Namibia is the instrument which
gives direction and defines the parameters for the application of the concept of total disaster
risk management within the established National Disaster Risk Management System in
Namibia. The Policy goal is to contribute to the attainment of sustainable development in line
with Namibia’s vision 2030 through strengthening national capacities to significantly reduce
disaster risk and build community resilience to disasters.
Policy strategies:
The policy has four broad strategies to be followed in achieving its goal and there are as follow.
- The integration of disaster risk reduction into sustainable development policies and
planning at all levels
- The strengthening of disaster risk management structures, mechanisms and capacities
to build resilience to hazards at national, regional , constituency and community levels.
- The systems incorporation of risk reduction approaches into the implementation of
emergency preparedness, response and recovery programmes
- Building of multi-stakeholder partnerships at all level to contribute to the
implementation of total disaster risk management.
Policy objective:
Achieving the goal and applying the broad strategies of the NDRM policy for Namibia, five
policy objectives have been identified. These policy objectives are consistent with priorities for
action identified in the Hyogo Framework for action 2005-2015, to which Namibia was party
and are as follow;
- Make disaster risk reduction a priority at all levels in Namibia by establishing sound,
integrated, and functional legal and institutional capacity within the established
National Disaster Risk Management System, to enable the effective application of the
concept of total disaster risk management.
- Improve Risk identification, assessment and monitoring mechanisms in Namibia.
- Reduced and underlying risk and vulnerability factors by improving disaster risk
management applications at all levels.
- Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response and recovery practices at all
levels.
- Enhance information and knowledge management for disaster risk management.
5. Role and Responsibility in Flood management
Namibia has three levels of Government: national, regional, and local. The country is divided
into 13 administrative regions, managed by a Regional Governor who is the Head of the
Regional Council (RC). At national level the Directorate of Emergency Management (DEM)
within the Prime Minister’s Office is the central coordinating unit for disaster management and
response. DEM is working closely with regional authorities, UN Country Team, Red Cross, and
humanitarian partners to respond effectively to disaster that need basic emergency response.
The National Planning Commission in the Office of the President ensures effective coordination
with the international humanitarian organisations. At regional level, the regions of Oshana,
Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Caprivi, and Omusati there are Regional Emergency Management Units
(REMU) which is also responsible for early warning floods preparedness and responses.
Table1: Existing institutions
Sector/cluster, that are mostly affected by
floods
Health
Governmental institutions
Early Recovery
OPM/DEM, regional authorities
Shelter
Ministry of Regional and Local Government
Housing and Rural Development
Ministry of Safety and Security; Ministry of
Gender Equality and Child Welfare
Protection
Education
Ministry of Health and Social Services
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Works,
Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (for
WASH in schools)
Food
WASH
Office of the Prime Minister, /DEM
Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Local
government
6. Planned future intervention
6.1 Drought: Climate change and food security
The Government of Namibia has implemented and continues to implement a set of measures
to counteract the effects of climate change and rising food prices on the national food security
situation of the country. According to NEPRU report on Namibia Agriculture and Future
Scenarios for Southern Africa Country, Government already has direct actions in place and
planned one in process, to address the issue of food security in the country, some are as follow;
Natural water courses are to be used for irrigation farming of staples, together with high value
horticultural crop production on the small-scale and commercial farming level. This government
action plan is in the implementation phase through the Green Scheme of the Ministry of
Agriculture, Water and Forestry. This plan foresees the mobilization/establishment of 22,000
hectares of irrigation farms along the perennial rivers bordering Namibia. So far, there has not
been much progress, as only 8,300 hectares have been included in the programme.
National storage capacity for staple grains is to be constructed in all northern regions of
Namibia to store surplus production of staples for years of need, and thus side-step the
vagaries of changing staple food prices on regional and international level. However, only one
region in Namibia, the Caprivi region, is a surplus producer of maize and mahangu. One can
question whether the construction of silos is necessary in areas where the average production
does not lead to a surplus of grain. But, to store grain is expensive, and a cost-benefit analysis
should be considered for the storage versus the import of grains.
Namibia in its long term objective also promised to increase the production potential of
subsistence farmers through title deeds and targeted extension. Once title deeds have been
granted to small-scale farmers, the land can be used as collateral for loans from Agribank and
even from other commercial banks. That would allow farmers to extend and streamline their
farming operations and to enlarge their titled land by additional purchases as land becomes
available. Licences that give permission to utilize the land are issued for communal land;
therefore, banks are not accepting these licences as collateral. Because of the current legal
situation of farmers is an obstacle to further investments in and growth of the agricultural
sector.
6.2 Flood Management
Office of the Prime Minister (OP): Emergency Management Directorate.
-The OPM is planning to follow-up with sector ministries on implementation of flood mitigation
measures and to link the response phase to development programmes.
- The OPM will also keep on facilitating the development of sector contingency plans and
training of regional personnel in disaster risk management for those six effected region.
- Food Security assessment mission it will be undertaken for the flood affected regions and
results used to provide food relief assistance to the most vulnerable people.
- OPM in liaison with the Regional Councils and Traditional Authorities in the identification and
verification of the people affected by the flood and in the coordination of the relief activities.
Ministry Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRGHRD)
Last year 2009, the Ministry Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development
(MRGHRD) has implemented a short, medium (1-9 years) and long term Future planning
concepts to mitigate the impact of the flood through the implementing of the following
activities as drafted in 2009 report of flood disaster response.
- About 2000 households in informal areas to be relocated from flood prone areas
- Conduct demographic surveys to verify population figures and to determine
employment/affordability levels of affected people
- Identification of availability of underdeveloped areas that are already planned and allocated
to developers (Oshakati North extensions 1-10)
- Identify people to be compensated as per Cabinet Compensation Policy and implement
compensation plan
- Provision of about 2000 serviced residential erven (including land for low income groups to be
formalized and serviced as per affordability levels of groups)
- Provision of social and economic amenities (market areas, institutional erven, sport and
recreation areas)
- Upgrading of the existing sewerage ponds to accommodate additional effluent
- Pre-feasibility study on hydrology (within 3 months) of the Cuvelai Delta in and around
Oshakati and Ongwediwa (Department of Water Affairs)
- Reclaim river channels by removing silting and provision of embankment
- Environmental impact assessment studies be conducted regular
- Building control manuals to be developed
7. Annual budgets
7.1 Agriculture/Drought
The 2003-2004 drought cost the government about N$ 275 Million in provision of emergency
relief (IIED, 2007). In 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry put in place a subsidy
programme consisting of both input (seed and fertilizer) and service (ploughing and weeding)
subsidies targeting communal farmers in dry land crop regions. The total 2008/09 budget for
these services was N$6.8 million, (seed: N$1 million; fertilizer: N$3 Million; weeding: N$1
million; and ploughing: N$1.8 million and for 2010 onward is not made available). The seed
subsidies are given to farmers as a 50 per cent discount when buying seed from private seed
cooperatives. The maximum amount of subsidized seed farmers can by depend on the type of
seed, but should be sufficient for seeding a maximum of 3 hectares of farmland. The problem
Namibia was facing 2008-2009, is shortage of seeds due to floods and droughts, in combination
with difficulties in finding seeds to import. Fertilizer, ploughing and weeding subsidies are all
given as discount to farmers using these services. Fertilizers are not widely used in Namibia,
due to concerns about possible toxicity to plants, (M. Froystad et al, 2009). The 2007
government interventions were the first steps towards a comprehensive programme targeting
national food security,
7.2 Floods 2008-2009
There was no separate Government budget for responding to the flood disaster in 2008 on
flood response. The OPM Directorate Emergency Management utilized funds from the National
Disaster Emergency Fund to fund the flood disaster response apart from the donations received
through Government. A total of N$12,169,340.62 was used to buy food and non-food items
(tents, food stuffs, fuel, transport costs, maintenance subsistence and travel allowances and
wages for casual labour etc) and the total A total of N$5,134,388.00 were received from local
and international donor . The cost does not however include expenditure by other
stakeholders who participated in provision of humanitarian assistance, (DEM, 2008).
According to DEM report on flood disaster of 2009, the Government received the total amount
of N$104,674,005.19 from various sources and it was availed to NDMS for the 2009 flood
disaster. That amount was directly received by the Government from treasury, various
organizations, the international community, individuals and institutions. With an additional of
US$1,696,695 was received by Namibia Red Cross Society and development partners such UN
agencies for flood support. Government expenditure was based on a total of N$104,199,005
which was directly deposited into the National Disaster Emergency Fund administered by the
Office of the Prime Minister Directorate Emergency Management. A total expenditure of
N$17,457,001.04 (17%) of available budget was incurred by Government. The major
expenditure incurred was on other services (77%) as its indicated in the table below for some of
the expenditure items as there was still some outstanding commitments. Expenditure on
transport was 15%, travel and subsistence was 8% and food procurement, 0.7% was
expenditure on materials and office stationeries and casual labour, (DEM, 2009).
Government expenditure on flood response 2009
Source: Directorate Emergency Management. 2009
Early last year 2009 international Organisations launched a Flash Appeal seeking $2,724,380 to
address the immediate and medium-term humanitarian needs to support and complement the
Government in its response. In terms of funding to the original appeal requirements ($2.7
million), the Flash Appeal to date is 70% funded ($1.9 million). About 68% of the funding
received ($1.29 million) for the appeal came from Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF),
(OCHA, 2009). See the table below:
Table 2: Funding to Namibia Flash Appeal against the original requirements
Cluster/Sector
Original
Funding
%
Requirements
Received
Funded
($)
($)
Education
264,835
0
0%
Food
155,150
15,718
10%
Health
872,395
1,071,676
123%
Protection
240,000
0
0%
Shelter
642,000
155,150
24%
Water, Sanitation and
550,000
670,786
122%
Hygiene
Grand Total
2,724,380
1,913,330
70%
(Source: Financial Tracking Service [FTS], 2009)
Unmet
Requirements
($)
264,835
139,432
-199,281
240,000
486,850
-120,786
811,050
8. I&FF component
8.1 Future cost projections
Due to MRGHRD short to medium and long term future plans which was drafted last year, a
total of N$ 578,337,083.00 will be required to these projected interventions to reduce
vulnerabilities to flood disaster in the flood prone areas in urban areas of Oshakati and
Ongwediva towns. See the table below.
Table 3: Estimated costs for intervention by Government in N$
Short Term Planning and Development
Description
Costing estimates
Compensation
MLR
Planning and Surveying costs for ± 2000 erven
5,000,000.00
Infrastructure Development costs for ± 2000 erven
68,000,000.00
Upgrading of existing sewerage ponds to accommodate 3,500,000.00
additional effluent
Pre-feasibility study on hydrology of the Cuvelai Delta
50,000.00
Removing silting and provision of embankments
100,000,000.00
Environmental impacts assessment studies
200,000.00
Develop building control manuals
100,000.00
sub-total A
N$ 176,850,000.00
Long Term Planning and Development
Revision and Compilation of structure plans
600,000.00
Feasibility study for entire Cuvelai Drainage Basin
600,000.00
Redevelopment of reclaimed land for business and mix-use 30,000,000.00
purposes
Develop Municipal Infrastructure masters plans
500,000.00
Construction of bulk services networks
10,000,000.00
Assistance or provision of rural sanitation in four regions
318,217,083.00
Develop infrastructure maintenance plans
70,000.00
Construction of solid waste site
2,500,000.00
Sewerage Treatment Plant
39,000,000.00
Sub-total B
N$ 401,487,083.00
TOTAL
N$ 578,337,083.00
Source: Directorate Emergency Management. 2008
9. Namibia’s subsidies programme
9.1 Key policy issues
To support local production, Namibia put in place a subsidy programme for communal farmers
in dry-land crop production in 2007 that subsidises production inputs (seed and fertiliser) and
services (ploughing and weeding). As the programme declared, it was too early to judge the full
impact of the subsidy programme, Even though, some preliminary results indicate that there
has been little demand for the fertiliser subsidy, for example, due to general scepticism towards
the toxicity of fertiliser.
When Namibia introduced a package of short-term drought relief measures 1995, the
government simultaneously established a task force to draw up a national emergency and longterm drought management policy. This was done in respect of the fact that Namibia is an arid
country where dry years are the norm. It’s noted that, to declare drought too frequently is
expensive for the government, and it can create dependency among relieve communities, and
can promote resource degradation through inappropriate assistance, after the drought Task
Force has undertaken a several consultations from 1996 until the approval of the national
drought policy by the government in 2005. Namibia should be in a position to maintain enough
policy space to regulate its own staple food imports to strike a balance between cheap food
imports and maintained price for locally produced staples to encourage local production.
10. References
DEM, 2008. Report on Nation Response. Floods Disaster. OPM. Windhoek. Namibia.
DEM, 2009. Report on Nation Response on Floods Disaster, Government expenditure on flood
response. Windhoek , Namibia.
FTS, 2009. OCHA Report, Funding to Namibia Flash Appeal against the original requirements.
United Nation. New York. New York. Retrieved from, www.humanitarianappeal.net.
Accessed on the 6th April 2010.
M. Froystad et al, 2008. NEPRU Working Paper No. 113. Agriculture: Future Scenarios for
Southern Africa Country Briefing-Namibia. Windhoek. Namibia.
OCHA, 2009. Namibia Revision Flash Appeal. Humanitarian Consequences and need analysis.
United Nation. New York. Retrieved from, www.humanitarianappeal.net. Accessed on
the 6th April 2010.
Sweet, R.J. 1997. Towards sustainable range management in communal areas. Proceedings of
7th Congress of the Agricultural Scientific Society of Namibia, Windhoek.
Sweet, R.J. 1998. Guidelines for livestock development and sustainable range management in
NOLIDEP pilot communities. Northern Regions Livestock Development Project
(NOLIDEP), Windhoek.