Access to water is their dream

Project 'improving our time and making our lives better'.

- Marizka Coetzer

A three-and-a-half-hour drive from the Pietermaritzburg Airport in KwaZulu-Natal is KwaMkhize village in the Drakensberg mountain range and considered a key crane conservation hotspot.

In this village, the cattle roam freely between the lush green grass fields, while children play in the yards and there is hardly a vehicle on the gravel roads that were still muddy and flooded following recent heavy downpours.

Since 2023, the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Crane Foundation has rehabilitated three springs and installed four water collection points for KwaMkhize community members.

At the Abambo tribal council of chief Dumsani Skhakhane, village community leaders said access to water in the community remains a big issue. But they are starting to see some benefits from the project.

The community said their dream was for every household in the village to have access to water, especially the elderly people who struggled to collect water.

They said not only did the quality of water improve, but also their crops and the quality of the food they cooked.

"In the past, it was difficult for us to collect water from open water resources that we had to share with our livestock, which led to water-borne diseases," a community leader said.