Imtiaz Sooliman – Eastern Cape drought Gift of the Givers updates 17 September 2020

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.