Many underdeveloped communities in KwaZulu-Natal have very poor access to clean and reliable sources of drinking water. The Gumbi and Mandlakazi communities are two of many communities with very limited water access. The Gumbi community is located to the North of the Somkhanda Game Reserve while the Mandlakazi community is located to the South. Somkhanda is owned by the Emvokweni Community Trust (ECT) and co-managed in partnership with WILDLANDS. WILDLANDS, through its partners – The Global Nature Fund and the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, is working hard towards addressing the concerns of water security and natural resource management in these two communities.
The Global Nature Fund (GNF), one of WILDLANDS long standing supporters through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) project framework, has committed to assisting the Gumbi community and its surrounding villages with improved access to safe drinking water through the Trinkbecher fur Trinwasser programme. This initiative (translated as drinking cups for drinking water) is a collaboration with the GNF and the premier league football club, Hannover 96.
This project aims to contribute to sustainable community development and water security by improving natural resource management. Historically poor land management, the spread of alien invasive plants and severe drought in recent years have transformed and degraded the land of the Gumbi community. People from the villages surrounding Somkhanda are directly dependent on the reserve to pump water to the communities from wells based inside the reserve in times of drought. This places a lot of pressure on the reserve’s ability to supply water for the wild animals and has a detrimental effect on the sustainability of the reserve as an employer of local people in the tourism and safari industry.
“This project will be focusing on the development of appropriate solar powered borehole pumps to supply domestic livestock watering points and central community water collection points,” said Dave Gilroy, WILDLANDS’ Strategic Manager of Conservation. “With the introduction of more game to Somkhanda and ultimately an increase of tourists visiting the reserve we need to ensure we have a sustainable water supply (i.e. drinking water). Not only for the reserve (and all its occupants) but also the surrounding communities.”
Engeolab, a geoscientific service provider, has been contracted to characterize the current status quo of water supply and quality in the area, as well as to identify appropriate sites for the installation of high yielding bore holes for domestic supply through recognized geohydrological methods. This process will ensure that some 5000 beneficiaries from the three Gumbi villages (Zonyam, Cotland and Hlambanyati) are supplied with clean drinking water. The installation will have many other beneficial impacts, like shortening the time spent daily walking to fetch water at centrally located and poorly serviced municipal points. This also means that people who use water for agricultural purposes and cooking staple food will use healthy clean water.
“We are really happy that through the partnership with Hannover 96 supporters and WILDLANDS, we are able to provide access of clean drinking water to the Gumbi communities in the neighbourhood of the Somkhanda Game Reserve,”said Thies Geertz, Programme Manager at the Global Nature Fund (GNF). “Ultimately, we hope that this action will help to improve the daily lives of the Gumbi people and at the same time contribute to the preservation of the outstanding wildlife at Somkhanda,” Geertz concluded.
The Mandlakazi communities to the South of the reserve have some access to water in the Mkhuze River, and are therefore not as dependent on Somkhanda for water supply. Their concerns lie with retaining the quality of water and other resources through more effective management strategies. To this end, the WILDLANDS/WWF Nedbank Green Trust project was established to support and ensure effective management of community lands. The process includes a community resources mapping exercise in which natural resources are mapped to better understand the interconnectedness of systems and processes and to better plan for sustainable use.
“This project epitomizes the WWF Nedbank Green Trust’s goal to ignite new ways for people and nature to thrive. Our passion is for people and nature to coexist in harmony and we achieve impact through working with partners such as WILDLANDS and the Emvokweni Community Trust (ECT). We are excited about the immense potential that this project will unleash within these communities and how it will empower individuals within this landscape to better understand and utilize the natural resources they have available to them in order to ensure prosperity for their community,” said Angus Burns, Senior Manager of WWF-SA’s Land and Biodiversity Stewardship Programme.
The water wells will officially be declared opened and handed over to the community on the 16th of June 2018.
Through the support and assistance of the GNF and the WWF Green Trust projects, WILDLANDS is helping the communities surrounding Somkhanda Game Reserve to secure their water resources and sustainable land management for future generations.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)