NEW ZEALAND Southland, Otago farmers offered drought relief 2 Feb, 2018 1:29pm 2 minutes to read Drought-stricken farmers in Southland and parts of Otago are the latest to be offered special relief payments. Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said today that the Government’s Rural Assistance Payments would be extended to the districts of Southland, Invercargill, Gore, Clutha, Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes. The payments, available from Monday to January 21 next year, help farmers meet essential living expenses and have already been offered to farmers in the Lower North Island and the West Coast this season. Sepuloni…

According economist Mike Schussler, the water crisis is several times worse than load shedding. This is because the lack of access to water is relatively permanent compared to rolling blackouts. This result in many businesses and industries semigrating in order to continue business operations in the country, he said. Schussler believes that major industries such as IT, transport, agriculture as well as exports will be impacted as water scarcity limits businesses and causes Capetonians to look for greener pastures. “We saw with the electricity crisis that South Africa missed out on a lot of growth. A water crisis to me is a few times worse. There’s no rolling blackouts with water. It’s permanent,” Schussler said….