06 Jul 2015

Bokspits village royal Kgosi Serai Esterhuizen has expressed gratitude for the Southern African Development Community Integrated Water Resources Planning (SADC IWRM) pilot project, which continues to benefit members of his community.

The project aims to implement a pilot scheme for water conservation through rain water harvesting and re-use. Through the project, 5 000 litre tanks have been put in 131 households, with their pit latrines also given a facelift.

“We experience water shortage in our area. With these tanks, households now store water and harvest rainwater during the rainy season,” he said.

He however pointed out that although there are efforts towards saving domestic water, some community members continue to water their livestock in their homesteads. Kgosi strongly condemned the practice, and advised that animals should drink from syndicate boreholes.

He observed that some residents water their livestock at night. He appealed to the Water Utilities Corporation to put measures in place to bring the culprits to book.

For her part, the chairperson of the Village Development Committee Mrs Elizabeth Taylor said the project is going to make a huge difference in the community.

She noted that most community members do not have stand pipes in their yards and were not re-using water before the inception of the project.

She said through the project, the community enrolled in water conservation courses. 

She revealed that 100 litre toilet tanks have been installed along with basins and wind pipes in the households. 

“Backyard gardens have been made for some members of the community,” she said. 

“We were also helped with prosopis control along our river banks and beds. Boreholes were also drilled, and one is going to be used for domestic use while another is going to be reticulated to about three kilometres outside the village for animal use by farmers,” she said. 

A resident, Mrs Susan Esterhuizen, noted that this is a highly welcome development.

“We are really happy about this project. Some of us have been saving to buy ourselves jojo tanks but never got anywhere,” she said. ENDS