Gift of the Givers warns on SA’s drought state

Gift of the Givers is concerned over the increasing calls for assistance for water and fodder from central South Africa.

In a statement, founder and chairperson Imitaz Sooliman, said the organisation’s resources are being stretched, as more desperate calls from municipalities and the farming community in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State continue to stream in.

Sooliman said the situation is becoming dire and is now a “national emergency”. He said it requires “rapid intervention”.

Regarding the losses incurred by the farming community, he said there needs to be support given to farm workers who no longer have jobs, as well as to the farm owners, who are struggling to pay debt to financial institutions.

“Gift of the Givers has intervened with R160 million of aid in drought relief thus far.

“We have been drilling 200 boreholes with a capacity of 50 million litres per day, providing hundreds of tons of fodder, bottled water, and relief aid to thousands of farmworkers,” Sooliman said.

Recently, about 2,000 Lesser Flamingo chicks had to be rescued by several organisations and transported to various locations countrywide, after low water levels resulted in the chicks being abandoned by their parents in search of water.

The low levels were due in part to extreme weather patterns and a lack of water.

Earlier this week it was reported that the adult Lesser Flamingos had made their way back to the Kamfers Dam. The dam levels began to rise and the extreme hot conditions have subsided.

Gift of the Givers also supplied the Free State town of Hertzogville with bottled water in December last year, after receiving calls from residents who indicated that they had been without a drop of water in the town for close to a week, amid a summer heatwave.

It was reported that a faulty pipeline was at the heart of the situation in the town.

– OFM News

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