After several years of political and economic successes made since 1994, South
Africa continues to experience major challenges in water availability, increased
poverty, high levels of unemployment and more recently, steep increases in
food and fuel prices. The Eastern Cape Province of South Africa is one of the
regions that have been negatively affected by changes in climate variability,
thereby, increasing the vulnerability and subjecting a significant number of
households to increased poverty; water scarcity and food insecurity. The
situation continues and there is a need to address this.
This study sought to understand how the local households in the Eastern Cape
Province in Nqgeleni location adapt to the extreme drought which impacts on
their livelihood by exploring the different adaptive measures or systems that
are implemented to cope with the climatic conditions in uplifting and providing
food and nutrition security for sustainable growth and development.
The primary aim of this research was thus to investigate how water scarcity
influences food and nutritional security on rural household in Nqgeleni location.
To achieve this aim, three secondary objectives were formulated. Firstly, to
establish the relationship between water scarcity on food and nutritional
security of rural households in Nqgeleni location. Secondly, to identify the
drivers of water scarcity in the area. Lastly, to create an inventory of coping
mechanism employed by rural households with water scarcity, food and
nutritional security.
An extensive literature review was undertaken to integrate prior findings and
theories on water scarcity, food and nutritional security. The literature study
revealed that water scarcity has a significant impact on food security. In
addition, several factors such as demographic profile variables (population
growth) and structural inefficiencies (infrastructure and management) were
identified as potential drivers of water scarcity.
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In order to address the objectives set for this study, a number of items were
sourced from the literature and a structured questionnaire administered to
respondents who were selected by means of a simple random sampling
technique. Data was collected from 111 usable questionnaires. The mixed
method approach was employed as a core research methodology. The
responses obtained were subjected to statistical analyses. Cronbach-alpha
coefficients were calculated to confirm the internal consistency of the
measuring instrument.
The findings from this study are thus as follows. There was a significant
relationship between water scarcity, food and nutritional security. Food
security also has an impact on nutritional security. In addition, the drivers of
water scarcity found in this study includes population growth, lack of
infrastructure and poor management of water related issues by the
municipality; all of which confirm findings in other studies. Furthermore, a
number of respondents profile variables were identified as contributing factors
to poverty, vulnerability, water scarcity, food and nutritional security in the
Nqgeleni location. This includes lack of education, size of the household, and
income level of the household.
Based on the above findings, an inventory of coping mechanism was
recommended to assist the rural households deal with water scarcity, food and
nutritional security. This study has added to the empirical body of water
scarcity, food and nutritional security in South Africa and the world at large.