Gift of the Givers comes to the rescue of drought-stricken Eastern Cape rural towns

Gift of the Givers will on Monday deliver fodder to and source water for farmers in the drought-stricken town of Adelaide, in the Eastern Cape.

“Fodder and water” was the overwhelming plea of commercial and emerging farmers, and the community of Adelaide in a meeting held with Gift of the Givers in the town 10 days ago.

"The drought has been crippling, animals are dying everywhere, sheep are abandoning newly born lambs, and drinking water for communities is totally constricted as the Adelaide dam is at zero level,” said Gift of the Givers’ Dr  Imtiaz Sooliman

He said the organisation had drilled five boreholes for the Adelaide municipality, but the water table had dropped dramatically due to excessive demand.

“Dr Groenewald, our hydrologist, moderated the flow rate through the pumps and, fortunately, the aquifer has recharged significantly,” Sooliman said.

On Monday, Gift of the Givers will deliver the first of four truckloads of fodder for all farmers, “deploying two drilling machines to drill boreholes in areas closer to communities with the hope of finding water in a region where the geology is extremely difficult”.

“If we succeed, JoJo tanks will be erected directly in the communities and connected by pipelines running from these new boreholes. Gift of the Givers will also be sending in two water tankers, truckloads of bottled water and will instal solar pumps on two additional boreholes that we have already drilled,” said Sooliman.

He said they hoped to bring “some” relief to Bedford as well by sending water tankers and bottled water, “followed by the drilling machines with the hope of finding underground water as a sustainable solution in this crippling drought that has affected large areas in the Eastern Cape”.

Butterworth has also requested urgent intervention, Sooliman said.

“Financial contributions, donations of borehole pumps and relevant piping, fodder, fuel, transport, bottled water, and food items for the increasing number of labourers facing job losses will all be greatly appreciated."