UFH researchers call for increased water security to improve sustainable development in Eastern Cape communities

Water security remains the most pressing emergency for rural communities in the Eastern Cape, researchers from the University of Fort Hare have found.

The research was done by Thulani Ningi, Dr. Amon Taruvinga, Dr.  Leocadia Zhou and Dr. Saul Ngarava from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension and the Centre for Global Change (CGC), formerly known as the Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre, both based at the University of Fort Hare in Alice in the Eastern Cape.

“Water, energy and food at the household level play a crucial role in the livelihoods of rural people. Therefore, addressing one resource at the expense of the other will not lead to sustainable resource management.

The three resources need to be considered simultaneously at all levels to achieve resource sustainability,” the researchers wrote.

The link between water, energy and food security was first identified and described by the World Economic Forum in 2011.

Fort Hare research however showed that water security was a major issue for communities due to the long distances traveled by households to collect water. Their research focused on households in Melani and Hamburg in the Eastern Cape.

While the food insecurity situation in the Eastern Cape is well-known, very few studies have linked water and energy insecurity to provide a balanced overview of how the province’s households struggle.

Households in the two communities are big and their income limited. Unemployment is extremely high (between 88% and 90% in the two communities.) Most of the households studied were headed by women.

A small percentage used agriculture as a source of income (1.4%). 

The published results showed that both communities suffered from water insecurity mainly caused by low water availability and time spent towards water collection. The water quality was, however, good, clean and safe for drinking.

“Thus, the water challenges in the two communities are technical and institutional,” the researchers stated in their paper that was published in the International Journal of Sustainable Development.

They added that most of the households they surveyed, in both communities (98.6%) were energy secure and 89.4% had access to an electric stove for cooking and 40% also had access to other sources of energy like wood, paraffin and gas.

Food security was low in both communities. In Melani only 39.7% of households had enough food. About a third reported conditions that the researchers said indicated mild food insecurity, 21.3% were classified as moderately food insecure, and 5.7% severely food insecure. In the Hamburg community, the results indicated that 34.5% of households had enough food, 43.7% were mildly food insecure, 18.3% moderately food insecure, and 3.5% suffered from severe food insecurity.

While most of the households that took part in the study were energy secure the researchers found that the use of electric stoves were making it financially difficult for families.

Researchers said their findings should provide valuable policy insights as rural communities’ struggles to access water may contribute to food insecurity because the two (time for water collection and time for food preparation) compete for the household’s limited time. To balance the limited time, food selection and possible omission of meals are some of the trade-off’s households will be faced with. Thus far, addressing water security in such communities without addressing water sources that are near residents of households may fail to address the expected water-food security improvement. 

“Improving water sources near residents of households may be a policy option for these communities with positive household water and food security net effects,” the researchers wrote.

They added that a relapse in energy security, on the other hand, may trigger household food insecurity through compromised food selection choices and change in cooking habits to accommodate low energy levels. 

“Efforts to address energy-food security improvements in such low-income communities should therefore focus on other additional energy sources that are not expensive to avoid the income substitution effect,” the researchers remarked. They added that while the link between water, energy and food was not obvious, but rather complicated it was important to understand the factors that influence it.