RUNNING DRY

At the height of the 2015 drought that parched South Africa's eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, Julie Mkhize had to pull carcasses of dead cows from the dried riverbed near her village, after the desperate animals perished seeking water.

Soon people in her rural community were collapsing as well from dehydration, with 10 dying from drought-related illnesses as drinking water ran short, Mkhize said.

In the years since, the village has seen water flows recover. But this year they are beginning to shrink again, producing deep-seated fear in KwaMusi, a village of 4,000 more than two hours' drive northwest of Richard's Bay.

"Cows, donkeys, goats, children, farmers and families are all competing for the same water," said Mkhize, 63, a small-scale vegetable farmer, sitting in the shade of a community produce-packing shelter.

"We live in fear of the drought, every day."

Around the world, stronger El Nino weather patterns and climate change are bringing harsher and more frequent droughts - and already-dry southern Africa has been particularly hard hit.

Water shortages have killed crops, forced farmers to migrate to look for work, hobbled the hydropower dams much of the region depends on for electricity, and threatened the region's rich wildlife as water-holes disappear.

In KwaMusi, a drip irrigation system - funded by the Siyazisiza Trust, a non-profit food security group - means Mkhize's vegetable cooperative, the Siza Bantu Nazareth Garden, can now grow and sell crops even through dry periods.

Slim hoses woven through the garden allow river water to slowly drip into plants, minimising losses to evaporation.

Since 2012, KwaZulu-Natal has suffered below-average rainfall, said Phatisa Mfuyo, a spokeswoman at the province's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development.

But KwaMusi's hoses have cut the water needed for irrigation and helped the 18 members of the cooperative maintain a steady income of at least 200 rand ($14) per person per day.

That's a huge improvement from 2015, when "we ate mostly cabbage", remembered Lucas Thungo, the only male member.

"We couldn't even eat our staple food of pap (maize porridge) because it required using too much water."  

 KwaZulu-Natal's periodic water shortages have sometimes been called a "green drought" because sporadic rains still bring new plant growth.

But the province's rivers - the bigger source of water - are fast being used up, according to a report by the Institute for Security Studies.

"I know it looks beautiful now, but wait until the drought," Thungo said. "Then all you see are rocks and dust. Everything becomes ugly. Even the relationships between different communities change for the worse."

In many rural villages, limited access to water has resulted in near-daily negotiations about how the little available should be shared and used, and how more might be acquired.

In the drought-parched village of Vuna, talks have led to water being trucked in, bath-water being shared - and plenty of thirsty animals.

The village's Kuthelani cooperative - the name means Hard Work - sits about 20 km north of KwaMusi, accessible only down a narrow walking path of deep red sand.

The four grandmothers who run the cooperative's one-hectare farm plot, hidden amid thorny acacias and imposing mountains, ululate as Brandon Nthianandham, Siyazisiza's rural community worker, arrives, bearing sugarcane cuttings as a gift.

"This community is probably the most impacted by the drought," Nthianandham said. But regular flash floods on the nearby Vuna River also wash away trees and soil, he said, pointing to a large downed tree on the river's banks.

When rain does not come for long periods, Vuna - like Nkandla - must buy water as both the river and municipal water supply is unreliable, residents said.

"We pay R800 ($55) to buy water from a delivery truck in drier months," said Zikhuphulile Nkosi, 76, the Vuna cooperative chairwoman. "This usually lasts for one month, and then we resort to drinking river water."

But buying water tends to be a last resort as it is an expense most cannot afford, she said.

Instead, the community starts by informally prioritising how limited water supplies will be divided.

"We cherish the government water supply for drinking. For everything else, like bathing, we all move towards the river, which makes it more polluted," said Nkosi. In Nkandla, home to former President Zuma's compound, families are also looking hard at how best to use water.

"First we must cook. We must feed the children," said Nomathemba Mashange, 51, head of the Thelumoyaphansi cooperative in Nkandla.

"Then we will use water to bath. Sometimes two to three of us will use the same water. Then this water is used for irrigating the crops. The livestock become our last priority."

Animals are largely left to fend for themselves, residents say, or slaughtered when they can no longer walk to find water.

In dry periods, when rural people drink more river water, they also suffer diarrhea and cholera regularly from the soap, sewage and animal waste washing down from communities upstream.

"We have all had cholera at some point," Nkosi said.

As government-supplied water arrives only irregularly, "we are forced to drink water we know is contaminated", she said.

Across rural KwaZulu-Natal, efforts to adapt to drier conditions are evident, from the new 'JoJo' tanks to hold rainwater running off tin roofs to more irrigation pumps and hoses.

For many communities, these innovations are also making life easier, particularly for women.

Before receiving irrigation pumps from Siyazisiza, the women in Vuna carried buckets of water to fields up to 15 times a day.

The pump has let them channel their time and the additional water into growing produce and income.

But they fear there is a limit to how much they can adapt to a drier climate if water shortages keep worsening.

"We are hard workers," Nkosi said. "But even if we work hard and plant to full capacity, it will be a waste. The water shortage will mean the death of our produce eventually."

Community members say the government needs to step up and provide more reliable sources of water, especially as river flows become increasingly unpredictable.

"We need boreholes. We need more dams. We need taps,"  Mkhize said.

According to Mfuyo, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development spokeswoman, the government is working on new water access, and currently deciding on projects for the 2019-2020 financial year.

But villagers remain sceptical that help is on the way.

In February, South African media reported over R220 million ($15.5 million) of national government funds designated for drought relief was missing. A further R120 million was granted.

An investigation into the missing funds is underway, South Africa's Department of Cooperative Governance told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, though a spokesman said the department believes less money is missing than was reported.

Dealing with worsening water scarcity will require South Africans to collectively put "the shoulder to the wheel in order to find solutions", such as rainwater harvesting and recycling water, said Sputnik Ratau, a Department of Water and Sanitation spokesman.

Kevin Winter, an environmental scientist at the University of Cape Town, said South Africa's government needs to take strong measures to manage ever-more-limited water supplies, and ensure water-related infrastructure works reliably.

"Sadly when water is provided for free in rural areas, it doesn't get properly serviced. What we desperately need is investments in new forms of governance to address matters of water supply and also water quality," Winter said.

Ensuring there is enough water to go around in a drier future will require greater vigilance from everyone, said Lucas Thungo, a community farm worker.

"We need people in power to monitor water usage - both their own and ours," he said. "The 2015 drought was one word: devastating. We simply cannot go through that again."