Lesotho - Harnessing water for irrigation

MOHALE'S HOEK – WHEN the El-Nino-induced drought severely ravaged the southern districts of Lesotho in 2015/2016, some ex-miners and those who had lost jobs in factories joined hands to solve the ensuing hunger problems.
These were men and women from Siloe in Mohale's Hoek, the district worst affected by the drought.

Instead of waiting for the government to take the lead as is the norm across nearly all communities countrywide, they dug deep into their pockets to start a water harnessing project.
Selala Pitikoe, one of the supporters of the project, told thepost this week that they chose the Siloe catchment site because“it has a lot of water even during drought”.

“We realised that there cannot be life without water hence we resorted to bottling it for resale and to water our crops,” Pitikoe said.
He said the World Food Programme (WFP) came on board during the 2015/2016 season after the El-Nino shock led to the implementation of a Food for Work programme that was funded by the WFP and implemented by World Vision.
The Ministry of Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation provided technical assistance.

“We planted trees and built stone terraces and gulley structures to control soil erosion. We also constructed water tanks, one is a closed water tank for household consumption and the overflow is collected by another tank for irrigation of fields down the slope,” said Pitikoe.
In 2019, the WFP continued to support the Siloe community resulting in the construction of more ponds.

Pitikoe said they continued to plant commercial crops and also set up a communal orchard and reared chickens in their individual households.
The Ministry of Agriculture moved in to introduce keyhole gardens to address nutrition issues. The community, said Pitikoe, raised money to start a pig rearing project.

“We have collected stones to build more pigsties, offices, toilets and a storeroom for our crops amongst other developments. We plan to develop a fish pond to increase our revenue,” said Pitikoe, commending the WFP for assisting the community realise its vision.

“We are already practising what we learnt (from the WFP) in our homes. Our objective is job creation and to eat nutritious food for a healthy lifestyle. We want our youths to work in this place too and neighbouring areas to learn from us,” Pitikoe said.
However climatic conditions such as heavy rains and storms remain a challenge.

“They destroy their plants but we learnt that we have to buy green houses and shade nets when the project grows to win the battle against climate change,” said Pitikoe.
One of the villagers participating in the project, 'Maqenehelo Motšabi, said she was grateful for the WFP's intervention as it changed their lives for the better.

However, she said getting fertilizers were still a challenge.
The councilor for Siloe, Phuthehang Mokote, said the catchment site“is a treasure in the Taung constituency”.
However, he said they still have to push participants harder and set new targets.

“We do several springs and we have the potential to achieve our targets. We can do it, but we can only succeed if we work together,” Makote said.
Makote said neighbouring areas will learn how to conduct business of this standard appropriately and profitably with the assistance of partners.
The Forestry Ministry's Director, Sekoati Sekaleli, attributed the success of the project to team work between the ministry, the WFP and the community.

“It was not easy to implement this project,” he said.
He said his previous bosses promised to complete fencing the orchard and“we will continue with that good plan”.
He also said the blue wattle trees that they have planted will have to be cut to create space for the grazing land.

“Not that they are unwanted but some need to be removed to create an open space for vegetation. We will also replant fruit trees that dried during the recent severe drought,” Sekaleli said.
“I will consult with my bosses so that we come back for plantation. We will work hard for the success of this project so as to set an example,” he said.
He said the ex-miners and other villagers have also been trained on bee keeping.

The WFP Country Director Aurore Rusiga said her organisation was impressed.
“It's commendable how fast the damage can be controlled,” Rusiga said.
She said the WFP would continue working with the Forestry Ministry.
The WFP Regional Director, Menghestab Haile, said the progress was commendable.

“Developments like this take time and if we don't maintain or work together continuously for sustainability it won't make the difference,” Haile said.“Now, how do we duplicate this for other places?” he asked.
He assured the community of his office's continued support, adding that Lesotho could be used as a pilot in the region.“What we do here can be done in other countries,” said Haile.

Harnessing water for irrigation and household use has been part of Lesotho's main plans for decades, with the government and other development partners undertaking studies and injecting capital for the projects.
The Lesotho final report of the National Consultation on Water, Food Security and Nutrition issued in May 2016 showed that the spatial and temporal distribution of rain is uncertain to sustain healthy agricultural activity.

It noted that it is not just the spatial distribution of rain that is a problem but also that water does not always collect in places where it can be immediately accessible for agriculture.
“This in turn makes it necessary to build infrastructure that will be able to move the water from where it is to where it is needed,” reads part of the report.

Six years earlier, there was the NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme document on Lesotho's Small–scale Irrigation Development Project.
The document noted that groundwater in the form of springs and sources of most rivers, and water supplied from boreholes constituted over two thirds of the rural drinking water supply.

“Exploitation of groundwater for purposes of irrigation has only just begun on a small scale under projects in the mountain regions,” stated the document.
The document attributed the failure of past irrigation schemes to“the reluctance of farmers to operate these schemes on a cooperative basis and has led the government to contemplate a different arrangement whereby only the irrigation infrastructure is communally managed”.
The document showed that a large part of arable land is under rain-fed farming.

The government aimed to harvest water to improve overall agricultural land productivity through harnessing of runoff and application of rainwater in the form of irrigation and through holistic soil moisture management by trained and capable farmers supported by equally empowered extension staff.
The plan was to introduce and promote rainwater and runoff harvesting technologies at both household garden and open field levels as sources of moisture in between rains.

It also planned to increase the extent of irrigation through the use of low cost technologies among farmers and groups of small farmers and conventional irrigation for medium scale farmers.
The government also eyed to promote land improvement, improved tillage and management of soil structure and texture as methods of management of soil moisture.

It wanted to build the capacity of beneficiary farmers and supporting extension staff to manage irrigation systems and to maintain irrigation equipment.
It was also observed that households in Lesotho often dispose of land around the home in the form of a garden in an area that can be cropped intensively using low input systems as well as facilities to store water towards the end of the summer for growing through the winter and into the early part of spring.

The government wanted to assist these households in the form of training, soft credit for inputs and supervision of construction of these structures.
Landless farming households and those without access to irrigable land wishing to take advantage of impermeable surfaces around the home would be trained and supervised to construct roof gutters and masonry reservoirs to collect roof water for home gardens.
The plan was also to construct surface ponds to harness water from adjoining land to use in gardens. This infrastructure could also be used for rearing ducks.

Household ponds used to be widespread in Lesotho in the recent past and the government's planned project would renew interest in these as well as improve the design to avoid rapid siltation and reduce seepage losses through stabilisation.
Another type of water harvesting is for use of land far from homesteads.
In the past earth dams were built on ephemeral channels primarily to retard water flow to reduce soil erosion.

These together with new similar structures would be built under the government project where feasible to provide water for irrigation.
However, all these plans have seen little success as the government struggles to move from words to action.

For Basotho, it may be time they took a leaf from the people of Siloe in Mohale's Hoek, where community members identified their needs and own the projects which they financed from their own pockets.

'Mapule Motsopa

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