Imtiaz Sooliman – Eastern Cape drought Gift of the Givers updates 17 September 2020
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The speakers discuss the drought in Karoo town and the difficulty of providing transport to people in the Eastern Cape. They suggest a face-to-face meeting and emphasize the importance of ESN Cape and its success in helping people through the drought. The use of water tankers in clip volumes and water sources is discussed, as well as the use of water sources in other towns and the use of water tankers in various areas. The speakers express concern over the lack of government intervention and the use of water sources in certain areas. They acknowledge the challenges faced by people in certain areas and express gratitude for the update.
AI: Summary ©
Now this week on our program, we have brought you a number of
stories focusing on the drought that has devastated Karoo towns in
the Eastern Cape. The call for help from farmers and rural
dwellers is growing increasingly desperate. The area of clipplot,
about 120 kilometers from half Annet, is of particular concern.
Now the charity gift of the givers has been sinking more boreholes
there and delivering food and fodder, but this evening, there
are signs that more help is on its way. I'm joined by Dr India
Suleiman, Director of gift of the givers. He joins us from Peter
maritsburg. Good evening, doctor. Just tell us a little bit more
about how things are in clipplot and some of the kindness that
you've received in terms of donations this past few days,
good evening, Sally, in terms of club, it's been absolutely fun,
fantastic. Just a few hours ago, we hit the fourth ball, and we're
getting something like 160,000 liters a day from that bowl. The
first ball we look at also around the same amount of water. We right
now doing what is called a yield test, where we test the water
coming out of the pump, out of the bowl. I mean, the first one was at
a school. It's around 160,000 liters per day. The second one is
in an open ground, it's about the same amount of water. The third
one, we were driving on Sunday evening. We got about four and a
half 1000 liters per hour. Dirologist then moved four meters
away from that, and that's why it's 160,000 liters per hour. Is
going back to the third one, because it feels there is enormous
amounts of water below the 4500 liter per mark. So in terms of
water, if we did do this for well, we probably will not need any more
water, any more balls, and there will be enough water to save the
whole town. That's in terms of club, in terms of courts, people
have been calling in to give us further provide transport. When
the supports, food parcels companies have been calling,
there's been a huge reaction nationwide from people wanting to
support the food initiative, Water Initiative and Ford initiative.
But at the same time, there have been many more calls for people
wanting out all over the Eastern Cape, and that's been worrying,
because the calls have been flooding in from every part of the
province.
So I wanted to ask, you know, it's really wonderful to hear that
you've hit water in clip plot and that area is is, you know,
prospects are looking better there, but as you say, huge need
all across the province in the Eastern Cape, lots of donations,
which is absolutely amazing, and this always is just such a feature
of South Africa's generosity that we do try and really help. I know
that you've been having some sort of discussions with government.
You were due to meet with the water and sanitation Minister this
week, have you as yet spoken to her?
Yes, my conference relations manager has spoken to her, and she
said she was supposed to come to Cape Town on Tuesday, but that
never happened. It was supposed to be yesterday. That never happened.
It supposed to be today. It hasn't happened. She said she wants to
discuss this face to face, but from inside the department, other
members of the team have been telling us that ESN Cape has been
a priority. They have been discussing it, but that when we
meet the minister, we will do talk to a face to face. She even wanted
to talk to my hydrologist to find out, you know, more details about
the drought itself, about weather patterns and, you know, practical
solutions, but we're waiting until we hear that from it directly. We
can't confirm that, so we will wait for that meeting face to
face. But we've spoken to on the phone at least four times this
week, and we send messages to the department, and we're waiting for
that meeting. You know, a little earlier this week, I spoke to
Sputnik ratar of the water department, and he said to me that
actually a lot is happening. And he said that there, I think he
said five water tankers had been sent to clip plot. Have you seen
those tankers?
There's no water tankers in clipplot. And even you send water
tankers to triple up. What's the use if you don't have a water
source? It makes absolutely no sense to send water tankers and
JoJo tanks to an area that has no water source. They only have one
functioning borehole that keeps getting into it, and it can't
function. That's why we have to do to make sure there's alternative
sources of water. And once we have the two balls, number three and
number four, we've drilled them right next to a place where
there's a water reservoir. And if you pump it into those reservoirs,
the whole town can get water from there, the clinic and get water,
and 900 houses down the road from the board. So in every area, it
makes no sense to send water tankers if you don't have a ball
source. You know, I know it's not the municipality
has got water tankers, but their balls are not working. And we
allow them access to our balls to take water to the areas. We even
use our balls and our waters to fill JoJo tanks for the
municipality, and we have no problem with that. So talk to me
about the other towns in the Eastern Cape in the Karoo that are
having serious water problems, and whether there is any sign of
government intervention to assist, I'm just trying to gage whether
there is much activity on the ground in terms of government from
what you're seeing, because you are in those areas that are in
distress. If you could just list a few of them for me, it's not only
in the Karoo, it's all over the.
Thinking we need to know that what the reason we're getting called so
many calls, we're not in all areas at the same time, but all areas
we're getting called from is they sing precisely that nobody's
helping them. They're saying there's no water, there's no
source. They don't know what to do. They can't afford bottled
water. It's in Fort, Beaufort, it's in Alice. It's in selling
makanga. It's in crafting it. The Abu Asmaa is trying to do
something, but again, there's not enough ball sources. There's not
enough water tankers. Butterwort is about to shut down. We've
mapped out 22 areas where both will be put in Butterworth. They
will get calls from amtata. It's It's pedi, moiplas, Romi, so many
other names. People are calling us from all over in state level.
Johnson Aberdeen,
claimed Porky or something like that, some stranger named
Steinberg. We just get new names all the time. Some of these names
you never have but from it. And it's not only one court that makes
it more authentic. It's not one call more than one person from
that area calls, maybe not the same day, not putting the same
hour, maybe a few days later. The other big problem is we've been
supporting besides people, clinics, hospitals and schools,
many businesses have been coming to us and say, We don't have
water. We shut down. We shut down. We don't pay our staff for the
day. That aggravates the poverty situation in area. So our tankers
try to work as much as possible, to try not to allow that to
happen. But it's impossible to be everywhere at the same time. And
you only got three tankers that we've been trying to get water
tankers, we just can't seem to get them. And if you have more water
tankers, we have the ball source. Our advantage is we have the ball
sources in many areas which we can use to fill the tankers and take
them to those places. Thank you very much for that update. It's
good to hear how generous people are. It's great to hear of the
work that you are doing, but it's very disheartening to hear Dr
imtia Suleiman that our water Minister has not yet spoken to
you, and that despite Sputnik rats saying that they are doing their
best these areas that you mentioned, the calls are coming
from people who say there's no one there to help. So the question has
to be, Minister, what's going on for.