Much of Southern Africa is caught in a cycle of droughts and floods, making it very difficult to grow crops without an irrigation system in place. Swaziland, a small landlocked country sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique is no exception, and its people often require food aid as a result.

To address this issue, IRD is helping communities to migrate drought in two provinces—Shiselweni and Lubombo, through a program funded by USAID/OFDA. This project aims to enhance food security by training farmers in conservation agriculture and livestock development, and providing some input support with seeds for drought resistant and soil-improving crops. A total of 1,600 farmers have been trained, and 1,120 farmers have prepared an area totaling 288 hectares using conservation agriculture techniques. They are producing maize, sorghum, and cowpeas. Farmers have established backyard and community gardens where they producing vegetables such as spinach, tomatoes, beets, onions, lettuce, cabbages, and carrots for sale and home consumption. Farmers have also been trained on keeping livestock numbers manageable to prevent overgrazing and reduce livestock deaths during drought years, and have now established protected grazing fields and are practicing rotational grazing.

Provision of water supply, promotion of sanitation and hygiene in primary schools, and improving community-based management of services is a big component of the program. IRD is replacing broken Afridev pumps with deep well hand pumps called Afripumps, which have been successfully tested in Mozambique and now in Swaziland for depths up to 100 meters. The ongoing installation/repair is coupled with construction of separate cattle troughs near the water point to keep the animals from contaminating the water source.

IRD has drilled six boreholes for community gardens where hand pumps or electric pumps will be installed, depending on garden viability and cost effectiveness. Single-hole squat latrines are being constructed and hand-washing stations installed to ensure proper hygiene and sanitation practices are undertaken at garden sites.

In 2008/2009, IRD improved the water supply, sanitation, and hygiene in schools through installation of 39 rooftop water harvesting systems (RWH). In 2010/2011, 20 RWH systems, each having a 75,000 liter capacity concrete cistern, will be installed. The rooftop water harvesting systems will be complemented by rehabilitation/ construction of latrines where required and installation of hand-washing stations. IRD is training local technicians to be responsible for the management and maintenance of the water points. School children are being trained on importance of hygiene and proper sanitation as well as maintenance of RWH systems.

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