(ERGO) – Lul Mohamed Sabriye, a farmer in Gobweyn village in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba, has not been able to irrigate her crops for several weeks despite her farm’s proximity to the River Juba.
Recent strong coastal winds have washed large volumes of sea water up the river, making the river water too brackish to use.
Lul planted maize, beans, sesame, and vegetables last November, investing $1,000 including a $700 loan she took on the promise of paying back after harvesting. However, the leaves of the plants turned black and wilted after her workers watered the crops with the salty river water on 18 January.
“We realised the river water was contaminated by the sea after watering the farm. A lot of farms were watered using the salty water, not only mine. We invested our money and time in these farms and now they have nothing to harvest,” she said. “We are at a loss.”
Lul’s tomatoes and green peppers have shrivelled up and dried. She depends on the farm produce to provide for her 10 children and six relatives living with her and is now struggling to cook them two meals a day. She has been taking foodstuff on credit from the local shops, but the shopkeepers are demanding to be paid.
Similar disaster has struck 200 farming families in Gobweyn and Qaam-Qaam villages. Residents of both villages are now depending on water trucked from Yoontoy village, 15 km from Gobweyn, and sold at 7,000 Somali shillings per 20 litres.
Abdullahi Hassan Roble, a farmer in Gobweyn, told Radio Ergo that he has to buy drinking water for his family every day. Half of his eight-hectare farm which he planted with vegetables has dried up. He stopped irrigating as the river water is bad and he cannot afford commercially sold water for the farm as well as the household.
“This is a big farm that was fed through canals using water pumped from the river by a generator. It used to take four to five hours to fully water it,” he said.
Abdullahi, a father of nine, said he spent $1,200 planting last December. His family is now cooking two meals a day using food that he reserved from the previous season’s harvest.
The commissioner of Gobweyn, Omar Abdullahi, visited the affected farms and river. He said the river water had turned blue. He urged the farmers to avoid using it for farming, adding that he saw no immediate solution other than asking for help from the government.
“There is no other solution until April when we get the Gu’ rains. I am appealing to the government to provide immediate assistance to Gobweyn, starting with water trucking and food for the farmers whose farms have dried up,” he said.
