Name: Leyce Tkawa
Age: 19
Sex: Female
School: Ezondweni Community Day Secondary School
Tell us a little about your environment and community
Our environment and community are geographically mountainous with many rivers, streams and a lot of trees. The main source of income are selling farm produce such as tobacco, maize and sugar cane. There are also business providing goods and services to help this trade.
How has your community been affected by changes in the environment or climate?
We have been affected by changes in the environment by longer dry spells leading to changes in crop growing cycles. There are many crops we cannot grow due to lack of rainfall.
What are the knock on effects of these changes for:
- You and your family
Our family has been affected in terms of health, happiness and sense of safety. I have been affected by not being able to go to school or work normally. During the dry season the whole community suffers as there are less job opportunities due to people not being able to work in the extreme heat.
- Your community
Most of the community are affected by failing harvests which leads to a lack of food. The shorter the wet season, the less food our community has.
What are the main risks which you think climate change / local environmental change poses to your life?
The main risks which climate change poses are lack of a secure water supply all year round. Without it, crops fail and people go hungry and cannot work. I am encouraged that people in the in the community are constructing dams to catch the rainfall in the wet season, for use irrigating the crops in the dry spell. If the dams are constructed, we can harvest some crops all year round.