Drought exposes thousands to hunger in Central Tanzania

There is much talk lately about elderly citizens in Chamwino District (one of ActionAid Tanzania’s areas of operations in the Central part of Tanzania) having to survive by eating the produce of baobab trees alone.

As the world celebrated the 10^th Anniversary of the international year of Older persons, under the theme “Towards the society for All Ages” last September, the elders in Chamwino District in Dodoma Region were in a bad state of affairs with unprecedented severe hunger to cope with.

Just recently I accompanied journalists to tour Chamwino district and see first hand the negative effect drought is having on the region.

Chamwino district

Chamwino district is just one among 65 districts in Tanzania that has been badly affected by hunger, due to prolonged drought caused by climate changes that has affected rain pattern in the district for the past three years.

The district normally receives one season of rainfall per year starting from October to April. During 2008/2009 season, it received rainfall from December to February with an average of 28mm, which is very low compared to normal year where the average rain is between 500mm and 800mm across the country.

A report from Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (June, 2009) revealed about 37,695 households in Chamwino district are food insecure with a total of 17,080 households being unable to afford to buy food.

While the annual requirement for the district is 63,501 tonnes of food the realized production for 2008/2009 season was only 12,178 tonnes, making a deficit of about 51,000 tonnes for this season.

According to the assessment done by the ministry of agriculture and food security, 17,963 households are food insecure and unable to purchase enough food to feed themselves. Average grain needs per household is 1,360 kgs which makes a total of 24,430 tonnes for the target households in the district.

Women headed households, orphans, old people and children are mostly affected by food insecurity and cannot afford to buy food.

Increasing food prices

Worse enough the prices of food items have increased from $0.50 to $1 per kg of maize flour, this is beyond reach by most families.

Moreover, price of livestock has decreased tremendously. All these worsen problem of food insecurity in the area which if purposeful efforts are not undertaken will ultimately impact women, children and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Persistent hunger has led to an increase in the number of pupils dropping out of schools from 10% in 2008 to 45 % by July 2009. A shocking result in a country trying to work itself out of poverty through education.

Learning to cope

Some coping mechanisms by the community include eating wild fruits, families separating by sending children to relatives in towns and cities, thus denying them an opportunity to continue with school, some men are opting to go to town in search of casual jobs leaving families and dependants behind.

“We’ve never experienced this before,” said an elder living in Chamwino who looked tired and exhausted because of hunger and starvation.

On our way back from Chamwino Rural to the regional head quarter in Dodoma, it was evident that the drought has rocked the place badly, but it is not until one goes deep in rural areas that you witness a story of serious hunger and starvation as most people especially elders are surviving on baobab juice alone.

On the same way we came across an old woman in front of her “tembe house” (a traditional gogo house that normally has no window) sitting outside on her traditional chair with her arms resting on her thighs and completely lost in her thought of bewilderment.

Her husband, John Simango, told us: “At this age, me and my wife cannot work we depend on neighbours and other well wishers the only thing we can afford to have is baobab from which we make stiff porridge”

ActionAid and the government has intervened by providing emergency relief food, but the situation is still alarming as the distributed food is very little compared to the demand, there is a deficit of 51, 000 tonnes of maize flour, and currently only 1,500 tonnes of maize has been distributed to elders, orphans, women headed families and people living with HIV/AIDS in 14 villages in the district.