Page 29 - Research Report 2025.1

Threat to Food Security Due to Agricultural Disruptions
Participant 2 highlighted how extreme weather events, such as hailstorms, directly threaten food security in the region. When hail gets out of control, it severely impacts both the quality and availability of crops in the fields, thereby disrupting the primary source of food for many households. This underscores the fragility of food systems in rural areas, where agricultural production is highly dependent on favourable weather conditions. Similarly, Participant 5 pointed out that when disasters strike and livestock is lost, families lose not only a source of food but also their primary means of income. This creates a cascading effect, where families are left without the resources to feed their children, further deepening their vulnerability and dependence on external assistance.
In addition to crop and livestock losses, a focus group participant emphasised that the region’s reliance on agricultural activities for economic stability makes it especially vulnerable to floods. Flooding destroys crops, livestock and other forms of agricultural production, leaving families unable to sell their produce and generate income. The loss of chickens, crops and other small-scale farming ventures exacerbates the economic instability in regions like Winnie Madikizela Mandela, which depend heavily on agriculture for both subsistence and income generation.
Participant 2
“Hail gets out of control, and it it impacts on the quality and the availability of food that is, that is, in the fields. So it threatens
somehow food security..”
Participant 5
Because remember, when they are disasters and you lose your cattle, they were the only source of income. Then it means you are left with Nothing to feed your children on.”
Infrastructure Damage
A Focus group Participant
“The economic status of Winnie Madikizela Mandela is predominantly reliant on agricultural activities. Yes. So in the event of floods, therefore, that would mean you would lose, you would use your crops, you would lose your Animals. You would lose your animals. And even, your there’s chickens that we would maybe rear for or raise for maybe selling. You can’t, you are unable to sell that”
Focus group Participant
“Yes. I think moreover in relation to these floods, remember, these floods we often bring up is often as a result of torrential rain. It has got a direct bearing on our infrastructure ranging from your bridges which by its own nature are low lying. Your roads, which is access roads they are then ruined. The main purpose of these roads they are the there to connect the community to the main road. Once this kind of occurrence happens it really ruined we our infrastructure.”
The impact of floods on infrastructure in
Alfred Nzo District is profound, particularly due
to the region’s low-lying bridges and essential access roads that
are easily damaged by torrential rains. A focus group participant
explained that the destruction of key infrastructure isolates
communities, cutting them off from essential services and further
exacerbating the vulnerability of the region.The damage to roads,
which serve as vital connections between rural areas and main
roads, hinders transportation, economic activity, and access to markets, schools, and health care facilities.
The reliance on government grants further emphasises the economic fragility of the local population. Another focus group participant highlighted how the limited financial capacity of rural households, compounded by the absence of insurance, leaves people unable to rebuild their homes after disasters. The dependency on inadequate grants also means that government responses to rebuilding efforts are often insufficient, as temporary shelters are erected instead of more permanent, flood-resistant structures. This cycle of temporary solutions leaves rural communities exposed to future disasters and entrenches their economic vulnerability. Finally, the broader implications of climate change and recurring disasters on long-term development were underscored by a focus group participant, who pointed out that the rural municipality often struggles to recover from disasters because funds initially allocated for development are redirected to disaster response efforts.
This diversion of resources cripples the municipality’s ability to progress with long-term development projects, making it difficult to build resilience and reduce vulnerability.
Focus group Participant
“ But then even during floods Yes. We lose a lot. We lose a lot because the people of Winnie Madikizela Mandela in terms of their social economic status. There is no there is no strength
in there. So dependency is mostly on grants as you said. Dependency is mostly on the limited number of people that usually tend to the livestock and their gardens. So one, you would have to lose your house. So one, you would have to lose your house.
The one house that you are unable to rebuild just because
Yes. Of insurance. You are you don’t have insurance. You are actually unemployed, and the grant is not adequate. And even when government is actually building back, they’re actually responding using temporal shelters instead of providing better structures that can withstand the impacts of the of the floods.”
Focus group Participant
And disasters are actually are actually, crippling development that is that is already there, which the rural municipality finds difficult, to bounce back from such activities because, funds that were planned for development now needs to be to be redirected for disaster response and everything. So in terms of policy development, we need to we need to focus on climate resilient, infrastructure.
That means that everything that we do is can withstand future disasters when even in the long run. Yeah. For sustainable development. So that we don’t find ourselves having to redirect money responding to disasters. But whatever that is being built at that particular point must be resilient from the word go.
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