Rhodesia Hard Hit By Serious Drought

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30951, 6 January 1966, Page 9

Rhodesia Hard Hit By Serious Drought

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY’, January 5. Rhodesia’s economy, already hard hit by international trade sanctions and oil embargoes since the colony’s break with Britain, today faced a severe agricultural crisis caused by widespread drought. According to farming officials, nearly the whole of Rhodesia’s south-west province of Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands have become drought disaster areas.

Unless nearly 200,000 head of cattle can be transported to better grazing areas soon, many thousands of them are likely to die of thirst.

Serious crop failures have also been reported in both provinces and, even if rain comes soon, there is little prospect of saving much of the affected crops.

Railway officials last night offered to start a massive evacuation programme to move the drought-stricken cattle to better grazing areas. The move may come just in time to save thousands of cattle from death and their owners from serious financial loss.

Virtually no rain has fallen in Matabeleland this season. The dry spell follows two suc-

.cessive years of drought and two poor seasons before that. A conservation officer in Bulawayo described the crop ‘position in the province as I‘ desperate” and said he i doubted whether seed already - planted would germinate, even iif rain came. Petrol rationing—the Rhodesian people’s most immediate concern—was further tightened today. The allocation of petrol to commercial users and other people buying supplies in bulk will be cut by 50 per cent. The ration will be based on their average consumption over the last three months. In earlier moves the Government cut supplies to farmers by 50 per cent of the normal bulk supplies and ended the exemption from rationing enjoyed by members of the diplomatic and consular services.

The oil embargo imposed by Britain has been the main cause of the rationing, but a blocked oil pipeline from the Mozambique port of Beira to Rhodesia’s only refinery at Umtali is also holding up sup plies.

Mr Smith must find a means of extracting 14,000 tons of crude oil presently stuck in the 189-mile pipeline.

With no new supplies to push it through, the oil is locked in and emergency methods of moving it could damage the f 4 million pipeline. The 14,000 tons in the pipeline represent about 10 days' supply—vital in view of the severe rationing now imposed. Pipeline officials at Beira fear that if water is used to push the oil along the pipeline this could lead to corrosion. Compressed air is being considered, but there is still a danger of the pipeline being damaged if left empty after the oil has been cleared, the experts said. The sources added that there was no more crude oil for Rhodesia in the storage tanks at Beira, and no firm reports of any tankers due with oil for her.