Mbabane: A number of response measures have been taken for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and Eswatini has topped the position in the proportion of national planned expenditures in DRR, regionally with 8.8 percent of the national budget (which amounts to an average of 22.4 million per year) over 2014/15 to 2018/19 financial year.
According to a Review and Update of the State of Environment Report delivered by Minister of Tourism Moses Vilakati on December 9, 2021, Eswatini is prone to different forms of disasters which include hailstorms, windstorms, fires, and droughts. The most common type of disaster is drought, the most recent one being 2015/2016. An el Niño induced one. This had devastating effects to the country’s economy and resulted in the lowest water levels on record, and was declared a national disaster in February 2016.
In the previous State of Environment Report (2014), the occurrence of veld fires was also noted as another disaster affecting the country. This report also emphasized that wildfires continue to be of great concern, which also wreaked havoc in 2019. Most of such fires are concentrated in the western half of the country (Upper Middleveld and Highveld) and the Lubombo Plateau. The predominant fires are as a result of forest fires in the Highveld and sugar cane burning the Lowveld. Dry climatic conditions promote the ignitibility of the vegetation, thus, El-Niño-like conditions projected in the future mean that more fires are expected in the near future.
The country also experiences strong windstorms which affect all the regions of the country, the Lubombo region is highly affected. Furthermore, flash floods were experienced in February 2020 in Mbabane city, and in the same year, the global pandemic of COVID-19 brought the country and the world as a whole to a standstill.
As per the 2014 report, climate change continues to be a major issue in the country. Climate trends analysis since the 1960s shows temperature patterns to be warming up over most parts of the country in the last decade. Minimum temperatures have been found to have increased more rapidly compared to maximum temperatures. This shows that the recent decades have experienced upward trends in annual mean, maximum, and minimum temperature with the most significant warming occurring between 2000 and 2015/16.
Rainfall trends in the country point towards a decrease in the number of rainy days which has an implication on the intensity of rainfall events and dry spell duration. In 2015/2016 the country experienced which had major devastating effects on the country’s economy. The country’s high reliance on rain-fed agriculture, products from local ecosystems for the majority of their basic needs such as food, energy, water, medicinal and livelihood requirements, limited health infrastructure, and services makes the country vulnerable to climate change.
The impact of climate change on water, agriculture, and biodiversity cascade to human health and development as the country’s population relies more on these sectors. Despite the gloomy picture on increasing temperature coupled with shorter rain days, the country had made great strides trying to come up with different programmes to lessen the vulnerability of its people and climate-sensitive economic sectors to the impacts of climate change.
The country’s modeling capability has developed significantly since State of the Environment 2014, which is important to understand the present climate, forecast, and projections to prepare the country for any extreme climatic events.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers the air quality in Eswatini to be moderately unsafe, with an annual mean concentration of PM2.5 at 17 µg/m3 which exceeds the recommended maximum of 10 µg/m3. There is, however, the growing concern of rising level of air pollution, especially around industrial areas. The main air pollutants sources in the country were identified as industrial emissions, domestic use of wood, and transport. There is a rapid growth in vehicles imported to the country which has increased fuel consumption which results in emission increases from the transport sector making the urban pollution more vulnerable.
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