The Nqweba Dam in Graaff Reinet is empty, dead fish are visible everywhere, boreholes have run dry, desperate residents collect water from unhygienic drains, children are pushed away from water tankers as residents "fight" for the little water that arrives. By all accounts, the town is on its knees, "water speaking" and drastic intervention is urgently required.

Gift of the Givers is the new

The drought situation in Adelaide is catastrophic: Adelaide Dam is empty, boreholes are running dry, no water feeds into taps, animals are dying, citrus fruit harvesting is six weeks delayed already, farm workers are losing jobs, poverty and hunger is spreading exponentially and sheep are deserting their lambs as they don't have the nutritional strength to feed them.

Gift of the Givers teams are

The efforts of the people of Sutherland for self sustainability is remarkable. We request the public to continue to support this incredible "sheep doll" project.

 

Sybil Visagie, one of Gift of the Givers co-ordinator to Save Sutherland and head of Save the Sheep campaign has been a pillar of strength to other communities in the Northern Cape. Sybil has motivated the people of Garies to

Two boreholes drilled and functional at Touws Rivier producing 84000 litres each per day.

Bottled water delivered to the Grahamstown Correctional Facility, various schools and local residents.

Sarah Baartman Municipality (which includes Makhanda) has been declared a Local State of Disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002. The declaration is published in the Government Gazette of 25 February 2019. Currently, due to reduced dam levels on the west and damaged filters on the east there is a shortfall of 13 megalitres of water per day. For the first time during Gift of the

Opening of the 3rd borehole in Grahamstown at the Settlers Monument. This centre hosts roughly 40 events annually and is one of the main attractions in Grahamstown.

One of the biggest science events is scheduled to take place next week right here where over 30 000 pupils from all around the country will converge. This festival was on the verge of being cancelled due to the current drought

Dr Gideon Groenewald, Gift of the Givers hydrologist, geologist and palaentologist, has done it yet again. At his first attempt he has found pure drinking water at 145m at Makhanda producing 20 000 litres per day as a very conservative estimate.

Tomorrow the drilling rig will be positioned at other sites with a similar rock formation where it is expected that higher yields of water will be found

Gift of the Givers intervened in Makhanda at short notice last week thinking that this was the only region in the Eastern Cape requiring water on a temporary basis until infrastructure was repaired, which was expected to take five days.

We have subsequently received calls from Riebeeck East, Amathole District (Queenstown) where over 50 000 people in 100 villages are without water for several

Gift of the Givers delivered Bottled Water to all the ECD's, schools, hospitals, Old Age Homes and Police Stations around Makhanda (Grahamstown). Water was also dropped off for the community at the various collection points.

Gift of the Givers is grateful for the assistance received from SAPS, Eastern Cape Traffic Control and SANDF.

There were jubilant shouts of "amanzi", with faces beaming in disbelief as people ran towards our trucks entering Grahamstown. Nine days of no water, nine days of desperation. The crowds, including many university students, gathered outside the municipality eagerly awaiting whatever they could get. Our teams commenced delivery whilst Dr Gideon Groenewald, Gift of the Givers hydrologist, briefed

The Gouritz river has been dry for the last 4 years due to the devastating drought in the Karoo. It runs thru Leeu Gamka, Laingsburg, Prince Albert, Albertina and Mossel Bay.

Gift of the Givers arrived in Beaufort West on 5 February to deliver two trucks of water for the emergency room. Ali Sablay, Gift of the Givers Project Coordinator, was welcomed by the Deputy Mayor Truman Prince, Speaker, Michael Motsoane and Chief, Whip Kilani who accompanied our team to the store room, the reclamation plant and Gamka dam.

Henk Kruger, photo-journalist with African News Agency, spent four days with Gift of the Givers teams in various parts of the Western Cape this week, investigating the effects of the drought on man, animal and the environment, talking to municipalities, residents, farmers, visiting "empty" dams and "dried" rivers, emotionally traumatised as he witnesses sheep dying in front of his very eyes (64

Gift of the Givers had provided pallets to farmworkers in Sutherland. This is the type of house built by them out of their own creativity.

Gift if the Givers delivers bottled water and water purification powder from Proctor and Gamble to 2 clinics in Limpopo. The patients from nearby villages still consume water from the river posing a huge risk to their health.

The Malepo and Mamushi clinics additionally received:

3 x bulk packs of adult diapers
4 x boxes of cotton wool
3 x bulk packs of baby diapers
1 x box of hand sanitizer
3 x

Water delivery to Roeland Street Fire Station. Gift of the Givers with the help of the firemen offloaded 3457 x 5lt bottles of water.

Gift of the Givers handed over 50 000lt of Bottled Water to the Kannaland Muncipality which is part of the Klein Karoo.

The Gift of the Givers team was welcomed into the town by Kannaland Mayor, Magdalene Barry.

In an attempt to save water, some municipalities turn off the water supply between 9pm and 5am.

Gift of the Givers loading bottled water for the drought stricken town of Laingsburg at our warehouse in Tygerberg. MEC for Local Goverment, Minister Anton Bredell, present during loading.

Fodder Delivery continues.

"Today we're short of words to express our gratitude towards GIFT OF THE GIVERS. In an ongoing drought it is more likely to lose... Rather than gain hope. But thanks to all of you, we were once again blessed, with free transport for 3 trucks of lucern. Thank you for giving us hope, and the courage to continue what we were born to do... Farming! We want to thank you

Gift of the Givers delivered TFG blankets to the isolated people in Baviaanskloof thanks to the ability of our trustworthy Isuzu.

 

Baviaanskloof is an isolated area as it is situated in the mountains on a bad dirt road 90 km from Uniondale and +- 190km from George. The area are very dry and the farmers are suffering but the most amazing thing is that as hard as it is for the farmers, their

Microsoft team from USA visited Gift of the Givers. Currently, in a joint project Gift of the Givers has installed smart water meters in 29 hospitals in the Western Cape. They have been highly successful in detecting water losses.

Gift of the Givers support to struggling farmers in the Northern Cape continues.

We have been inundated by calls from the media to confirm if we are withdrawing from Makhanda. The answer is "Yes". There has been no disagreement with the Makhanda Municipality, they have been excellent. The municipality, university, the multicultural community, political parties, SAPS, B and B establishments, learners, tourists and students gave us the most memorable reception that anyone could

Gift of the Givers commenced the intervention on 12 February not only to "save" a historic town, but to save the very soul of a society whose life blood revolves around the dynamic Rhodes University, the excellent schools, the Settler's Monument and it's host of outstanding educational and cultural activities, including the current Sci fi event and the Standard Bank Arts Festival. We are here to

Opening of the 4th borehole at Ntsika Secondary School in Joza, the largest township in Grahamstown.  This borehole pumps 90 000lts per hour, a second borehole will be drilled at the school where the community may collect from more conveniently.

"Please can I get some water, we have nothing to drink...we couldn't brush teeth...we didn't bath...the water is brown...there is no water in the tap...". These are the sentiments of hundreds of residents who stop our teams in every corner of Makhanda requesting water with such dignity. The smiling face deceptive of an underlying desperation visible deep in the eyes, yet the resilience,

Gift of the Givers team depart from Howick in KZN laden with fodder for Grahamstown.

Residents of Riebeeck East receives bottled water from Gift of the Givers.

Grahamstown / Makhanda residents queued patiently for their bottled water from Gift of the Givers. Water was also distributed to various schools, clinics, hospitals and police stations.

 

Gift of the Givers delivered 2 truckloads of fodder to the distressed farmers of Voel Vlei and Die Vlaktes in Mossel Bay.

Farmers were overwhelmed by this delivery as they could no longer afford to feed their livestock. One farmer sold his vehicles in order to be able to purchase animal feed.

While visiting 2 farms with journalist Henk Kruger, our team discovered 15 dead sheep in the fields.

Makhanda (Grahamstown) is in serious trouble, water speaking. Settlers Dam is at 13%, water cannot be extracted from the last 10% due to high silt levels, effectively it has 3% reserves. Waainek Water Treatment Works that receives water from the very much smaller Howiesons Poort Dam had a problem with its pumping capacity due to electrical failure recently and was out of service for a few days.

Proud farmworker's wife holding money earned from selling carpets she knitted using wool provided by Gift of the Givers. Gift of the Givers encourages skills development and entrepreneurship.

The drought in South Africa has had a devastating impact on man and animal; many South Africans are not aware of the extent of the catastrophe. Gift of the Givers has delivered R65 million of fodder in the period August 2017 - December 2018.

The new delivery commenced today with a generous contribution of R600 000 of high quality luserne from Rall Yzelle in Thabazimbi. This load is earmarked for

Gift of the Givers delivered 6000 x 5 lt bottled water to the drought stricken community of Laingsburg. Tap water is not drinkable.

In attendance was the Deputy Mayor of Laingsburg, Irene Brown.

"Last emergency Bottle Water to Run out in Beaufort West

The Beaufort West Municipality will be running out of emergency bottle water within the next day.

This is a direct result of the low reservoir levels in town over the past months that caused that the municipality had to distribute the emergency water that was donated by Gift of the Givers for Day Zero and emergency cases.

The municipality

Following urgent delivery of bottled water to crisis hit Laingsburg and Beaufort West in the last two weeks, Gift of the Givers expected more municipalities to call us directly as many of the outlying Western Cape areas are water distressed for several weeks now. Gift of the Givers brought in 300 containers of bottled water by ship and road to Cape Town from January 2018 at our cost to assist the

First it was Beaufort West that ran out of water two weeks ago. Gift of the Givers received frantic calls from the municipality, responded and is still responding.

Today Gift of the Givers received frantic calls again: "Laingsburg Municipality is currently running out of water. The main water source, Soutkloof fountain has dried up. Very low levels of water in the main reservoir and consumption

Providing water from our borehole at AH Barnard School to the community of Beaufort West.

Hertzogville in the Free State ran out of water in December as the reservoir pumps broke. Gift of the Givers sent in water whilst the pumps were being repaired.