美国国家公共电台 NPR South African Farmers Lose Crops And Workers Amid Crippling Drought

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LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

A prolonged drought means that Cape¹ Town, South Africa is running out of water. The city is frantically² trying to cut back the use to delay day zero. That's the day the city will shut off the taps, currently estimated to fall in April. The problem extends beyond the boundaries of the city, which has some 4 million people. As Peter Granitz reports, farmers in the region are losing access to dams they share with Cape Town just as the harvest season gets underway.

PETER GRANITZ, BYLINE³: Tony Largier grows apples, plums and nectarines at Little Oaks Farm. It's a beautiful piece of land in a valley between mountains. The closest one, Bok Kop, gets snow in the winter. We walk amid his nectarine trees.

TONY LARGIER: This variety is summer bright. It's sweet, crunchy. It's a good nectarine. It's one of the newer varieties.

GRANITZ: Largier and other farmers in the area pull water from the nearby Elandskloof Dam. It's part of a network of dams that farmers, villages and the city of Cape Town share. Farmers work on a quota⁴ system. An irrigation board determines how much water each farmer needs to grow certain crops and how much water the dam can spare. Their allocations have gotten smaller amid a three-year drought.

LARGIER: All the farms here pour water out of the dam and with a measured amount that we can pull every year. If you get your 100 percent quota, that would be what they reckon you need to grow a hectare of fruit.

GRANITZ: This year, Largier only got a 17 percent allocation because the Elandskloof Dam only filled a third of the way.

LARGIER: You're living on borrowed time. And 17 percent is a huge problem.

GRANITZ: Agriculture is big business here in the Western Cape province. Industry economists⁵ estimate that apples and pears are worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The Theewaterskloof Dam is the biggest in the network. About 70 miles east of Cape Town, it supplies both the city and local farmers. It's sitting at just 13 percent capacity. And here, there's no water to be seen. It looks like a sunken, sandy beach in the middle of a mountain range - a beach with no water. Billy Bourbon-Leftley is the strawberry king. That's the name of his business. He sells strawberries locally and exports plums.

BILLY BOURBON-LEFTLEY: We start planting within a month. And there's no water. We've ordered plants. We've paid for the plants. What are we going to do?

GRANITZ: One thing he will do - lay off workers. Analysts⁶ estimate between 30,000 and 70,000 seasonal⁷ workers could lose their jobs. Bourbon-Leftley told his workers that less water means lower yields. And lower yields means he cannot afford to hire everyone this season. He had his dam water shut off earlier this week.

BOURBON-LEFTLEY: They're taking the water away to the city. So it's a little bit unfair. As long as there's enough water for us, we don't mind. But now with the drought, they're taking more, more water from the agriculture.

GRANITZ: The water is being diverted to Cape Town to avoid day zero. But Kevin Winter with the Future Water Institute at the University of Cape Town says curtailing⁸ farmers will not prevent day zero.

KEVIN WINTER: It's not going to make a massive difference, but anything that allows us to push day zero out a little bit further is one management tool.

GRANITZ: Back at Little Oaks Farm, Tony Largier says he can use water from the dam until next month. After that, he'll rely on boreholes. He doesn't know how long that will last.

LARGIER: If the boreholes keep going, I believe I can, with a push and a shove, get through this season. How much mortality and trees, et cetera I'm going to have? That's anybody's guess.

GRANITZ: He's worried about the future. If the dams don't fill, there will be no groundwater. And since so many farmers are relying on boreholes, they're depleting⁹ the underground water supply. For NPR News, I'm Peter Granitz in Cape Town.