Supplying water to the community of KwaMkhize in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands not only benefits the people living in this mountainous area but also ensures that Crane species living in an adjacent wetland are protected.

KwaMkhize lies in the shadows of the Drakensberg mountains with Giants Castle looming large in the distance. It is an area of rolling hills and lush veld. It is also an area of extreme poverty, and an area which is difficult to access, given the state of access routes, which have been under construction for some time. The extreme rainfall in recent months has also not helped. But, that rain has fed the many springs in this area ensuring a continuous supply of water to the newly-installed water points in the village by the Endangered Wildlife Trust/International Crane Foundation Partnership(EWT/ICF), and filling the nearby rivers and streams that nourish the wetland home to the Grey Crowned, recently downlisted Wattled and Blue Cranes.

This catchment is home to an estimated 25% of South Africa’s Wattled Cranes and is a critical breeding ground for two of the three crane species – Wattled and Grey Crowned Cranes. But, Cranes are not the only reason the EWT/ICF Partnership is working in this area, also considered one of South Africa’s water factories—a source of water to cities like Johannesburg and eThekwini.
Samson Phakathi, senior community field officer for the EWT/ICF African Crane Conservation Programme, holds much praise for the KwaMkhize community, which has not only taken ownership of its water supply issues, but has, as a collective, worked with the EWT/ICF Partnership since 2016 to address numerous issues of concern. Of late, that has expanded to land use management, which includes planning to remove alien and invasive species such as the Natalie Bramble especially around rehabilitated springs and rangelands used for grazing of cattle, as well as the pollution of rivers and streams, the installation of pit latrines close to springs, and ensuring new housing developments don’t encroach on grazing lands.

Besides working as a collective to ensure all residents have access to clean potable water, the community is set to workshop a landuse plan for the area so that human development does not affect their primary activity—livestock farming.

Many rural areas receive limited access to governmentally supplied services due to the distance the communities are to main roads. Springs are, therefore, vital in these communities. Interacting with communities to better support natural resource management helps protect the landscapes in which cranes in South Africa live, primarily wetlands, grasslands and farming landscapes. Through our Springs project, the EWT/ICF Partnership has protected seven springs across two communities in the Drakensberg, KwaMkhize and Mqatsheni.

Overall, the implementation of the seven spring protection projects has served 2,445 individuals across 292 households, two schools and a clinic that services 150 people a day 365 days a year; therefore, a total of 54,750 individuals benefit from potable water at the clinic.

The key benefits of the spring protection include clean potable free water, easy access, enabling children to spend more time in school, improved health of the community, especially the children and a secure water source. Furthermore, the protection prevents cattle from getting stuck in mud and either succumbing or becoming ill from polluted water.

The primary uses of springs were for potable water, cooking, cleaning and washing. However, some households use spring water for watering vegetable gardens and traditional medicines.

All the residents of KwaMkhize rely on springs as a primary source of water. Getting up the mountains to reach the water sources created an opportunity for the EWT/ICF Partnership to bring water to the community through the installation of pipes and taps in key sections of the expansive village.

Because KwaMkhize is a water factory area, it is important that the catchments are protected so that enough water of good quality can be captured to supply the cities, said Phakathi. “We thus need a constant supply of water, and this increases the importance of the area.”

One spring supplies water to hundreds of households. In the past, residents, particularly women and children, trudged to the water sources several times a day to collect water.

“In the past we had to wait two hours for a bucket to fill and then we had to wait because the water was polluted because livestock also drank at source, so we had to wait for pollutants to settle before could use the water,” said 20-year-old Nosipho shortly after she and her sisters had collected buckets of water from a nearby tap. “The water quality we have now is the greatest benefit.”

“This has made our lives much easier,” said an elderly woman as she inspected the recently installed tap.

Close to another spring is a spring silt box, which catches sediment before storing water for community use. This is maintained once every three years to ensure the water being supplied is not dirty.

The pipes from the spring, said Phakathi, are installed in such a way that they do not interrupt the flow of water to streams feeding the wetland. The aim is not to destroy or harm the environment while improving the lives of the community.

“This project has been an eye-opener to learn how a project of this nature has impacted people positively,” said Phakathi.

An important aspect of the EWT/ICF Partnership’s work has been to focus on encouraging the community to take the lead so that once the organisation withdraws from the area, the community is able to live sustainably and be self-reliant, critically important aspects in a rural area such as this.

“The communities are actually participating quite fully from the leadership to the people on the ground,” added Phakathi.

Projects such as this are extremely important, he said, especially since water is a human right but also forms part of one of the Sustainable Development Goals. A project of this nature not only addresses access to water, but also encourages people to sit down and discuss issues of concern and formulate measures, and draw on local capacity to solve problems through participation.
He believes this project is a step in the right direction when it comes to saving Cranes, as the EWT/ICF Partnership has not imposed its will on the people, but rather allowed the community to take the lead while the team advises on how best to manage the area and interact with their immediate environment.

“We are not here to impose on the community, but to work with them,” he said. “As much as we are a conservation organisation, when we approach communities, we don’t look at that as something that we should be pushing, but we look at the challenges that they are facing in order to address their challenges while addressing environmental issues at the same time.”

At a meeting with local indunas, access to water was highlighted as a key issue for KwaMkhize. But, the indunas pointed out, this project has brought with it a number of benefits, especially easier access to clean water. Waterborne diseases, they believe, may be a thing of the past if all community members could eventually have access to spring-fed water points.

The hope was also that the EWT/ICF Partnership could have the ability to mobilise more resources so that the entire community could be accommodated in the long term.

“A project of this nature can do a lot to improve the lives of people, and we are very thankful for a project like this,” said one local induna.

The EWT/ICF Partnership would like to extend a huge debt of gratitude to the Paul King Foundation and the HCI Foundation for providing funding for this important piece of work.

Read more about how we are working to save cranes, conserve their vital habitats, and benefit the people living with them