Water Water Nowhere

Today shouts of despair are coming out of all parts of Johannesburg as water is cut in many suburbs. It is way too late to avert this water disaster as no one in government was prepared for the full might of El Niño. To them the El Niño is too far away and as far as they know it never affects South Africa.

Oh how wrong they are. El Niño is a weather phenomenon that forms over on the other side of our world in the mid Pacific Ocean. This rapidly heating up of the Pacific, regularly brings with it drought to the southern hemisphere, and we are in the southern hemisphere. El Niño brought South Africa to its knees twice before, in 1983 and again in 1992, by crippling the agriculture segment and the economy.

A new government is now in place since then and it seems that they have not listened to history. Since 1992, El Niño has been mild to South Africa, why do we need to make a fuss? Well now you know, El Niño seems to have a score to settle. The weather service is warning a bleak summer with substantial rains only expected in March next year. Soon our beautiful land will be parched and dry that even the ducks will find themselves high and dry.

After El Niño comes La Niña, when the Pacific rapidly cools, which leads to heavy rains in the southern hemisphere. This blessed rain which we now long for can be too heavy in the beginning and washes away the dry topsoil.