AllAfrica.com via New Era (Namibia): Just days into the new year fears are mounting countrywide that rainfall deficits last November and December portend similar prospects for the main rainy season of 2014 from January to March.Below average rainfall in November and December brought little relief to the drought-stricken country and the first week of January 2014 has left little room for optimism, as will next week with hardly any rain in sight for most of the country.
The situation has also put a big question mark over the annual rain forecast of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Regional Climate Outlook Forum's Climate Service Centre for 2014. Last year in June the centre raised Namibia's hopes for normal to above normal rainfall from October 2013 to March 2014.
The Namibian Government went on record late last year that the country could have been better prepared to tackle the drought, which has affected close to 40 percent of the population, had the SADC weather forecasters given more accurate rainfall predictions.
The SADC weather forecasters predicted normal to above-normal rainfall from October to December 2012. This was in contrast to the Namibia Meteorological Services' (NMS) cautioning about poor rain prospects early in February the same year.
Namibia is still in the grip of the worst drought in three decades that has left 778 504 people both food insecure and moderately food insecure. Of that figure, 463 581 people are food insecure while 330 927 are moderately food insecure, the deputy director of the Emergency Management Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Helena Likando, was quoted at the closure of 2013....
Parched earth in Namibia, shot by Robert Raderschatt (Robert.raderschatt at de.wikipedia), Wikimedia Commons, public domain
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