Drought events are integral parts of climate variability. Over 80% of the Basotho population’s livelihood is dependent on rain-fed agriculture. This current study used force-field project management technique for drought vulnerability analysis. The study was approached from a phenomenological viewpoint conceptualised using a force-field analysis technique. The study used a qualitative research approach and a phenomenological research design. The main findings of this study were high unemployment rate, environmental degradation and poverty. The study proposes that post- education outreaches and community capacity-building projects should be effected. This can take several forms, such as learnerships, where everyone is certificated for the job trained for. The study proposes that all registered institutions in country, be it catering, Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO), construction companies, driving schools, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private companies, driving schools, NGO’s, private companies and so on, can take part in the training of members of the community in partnership with well-known institutions such as the National University of Lesotho, St, Elizabeth, Lerotholi Polytechnic and Limkonkwin Creative University for accredited informal certification. This skilled labour force can then be trained on how to create and form cooperatives to assist the government with the task of employment. Ha Masupha and Ha Thakanyane are places that are less advantaged with poor transport and road infrastructure and high migration rates and poverty levels. If all or a majority of the proposed actions for change are effected, there will be fewer new HIV/AIDS infections, improved quality of life, less deforestation caused by poor socio-economic status and less graduate unemployment for all Thabana Morena communities.
Given the high poverty levels in Africa, with most countries’ economy and populations’ livelihood dependent on rain-fed agriculture, land degradation among other environmental hazards has proven to be a major threat to economic growth and food insecurity, respectively. Drought, which is on the increase at the global level and said to create over 78% of other hazards, has aggravated land degradation. Dry conditions lessen soil particles cohesion force, thereby increasing susceptibility of such soils to be lost by wind and water. The current study aimed at estimating land degradation from drought hazard index, standardised precipitation index (SPI) over the drought declared district of Mafeteng Lesotho. Data were provided by Lesotho Meteorological Services for a period of 30 years (1984–2014). All missing values that existed in the collected precipitation data were filled with average values of the months with data. The computation of SPI was performed by using DrinC software in SPI-3 and SPI-Annual time step. The results revealed a constant condition of land degradation vulnerability over a 30-year period, implying a continuous loss of soil fertility, agricultural gross domestic product (GDP), water and bio-energy, malnutrition and increased poverty levels.
Drought is defined as an insidious hydrometeorological hazards with a potential to negatively impacts on society, economy and environment. The current study aimed at analysing the drought potential risks in the study area for the protection of economy, environment and human lives. A 42-year long rainfall/precipitation data were collected from an online database. Dataset was subjected to quality check, where outliers were detected, removed and replaced by Expectation Maximum algorithm aided by SPSS. A non-parametric Mann Kendall's test for trends was applied to detect monotonic trends present in the dataset. XLSTAT software was used in fitting annual data for a suitable probability distribution. The annual data fitted normal probability distribution with parameters, =183.143, =530.451 using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test criterion. The spectral analysis showed that the study area is expected to experience drought events every 2 years. The government and other relevant stakeholder authorities are therefore cautioned to put measures in place for the protection of property, environment and human lives and agricultural activities against adverse effects of droughts.
Climate change has proven to increase the odds of worsening drought events around the globe, resulting in adverse effects on society, economy and environment. The current study aimed at characterising drought events in the study area in order to alert responsible government department and all other relevant authorities for proactive response before it is too late. The researcher collected precipitation datasets from NASA data portal alongside the main Thabana Morena road. For quality control, both homogeneity and stationarity test were conducted. Prior to this, outliers were detected and replace back by Expectation Maximum algorithm aided by SPSS. Three computer programmes were used in this study, namely; DMAP, XLSTAT and PAST3. Drought was quantified on two temporal time scales to pick up both agricultural and hydrological drought episodes. Major results indicated most stations having homogenous precipitation datasets and as such only two distant stations (Ha Thakanyane and Ramarothole) were used in further analysis. Ha Thakanyane and Ramarothole depicted constant and statistically increasing severe drought conditions on both temporal scales over 38 years respectively. The situation warrants sustainable off-agricultural interventional measures by the government and all relevant stakeholders to protect environment and human lives that are dependent on rainfed agriculture for livelihood.
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