Save Hwange Trust

Faced with increasingly devastating reports from Hwange during the drought, a group of Zimbabweans formed the Save Hwange Trust to address the long-term challenge of water problems in the park.

Aiming to re-establish ten working waterholes by the start of the 2006 dry season, the trust contacted Dell Strachan of the Friends of Hwange group to raise funds and administer the trust, and Gary Cantle to repair and service the pumps so that the waterholes could be filled again.

Generous private and corporate donations of money, pump parts, and fuel at cost price allowed the friends of Hwange to resurrect ten waterholes by the time the 2006 dry season began in earnest.

This saved Hwange's wildlife from the looming prospect of another fatal drought. The issue is that Hwange especially in the south of the park is reliant on the pumping of water in the dry season June to October to sustain the pans for the huge variety of animals that need water.

The objective of the Save Hwange Trust is to install solar powered pumps at strategic waterholes to eventually save on fuel costs etc, a donor is currently being sort.

Dependency

Brett MacDonald, a founder of the Save Hwange Trust, relates a story of how he fixed a broken pump in the park. Having repaired the pump's machinery, he struggled to engage the engine with the reticent pull-start. After at least an hour of increasingly desperate pulling, the engine finally caught and the pump rattled into life.

Brett stepped back with relief, and suddenly became aware that he was surrounded by a huge herd of elephants. They had been attracted by the noise of the stuttering engine, and when the water finally spluttered out of the pipe they took turns drinking with their trunks over the outlet.

Initially uneasy about the proximity of the elephants, Brett realised that they weren't at all interested in him - only in the water that his efforts had produced. As he walked slowly back to his land rover, the elephants parted to let him through the herd.

Sustaining the Flow

The situation in 2005 was not so dire in the private concessions around Hwange proper, which had funds available to keep their own pumps running and their waterholes full. This situation led some blinkered media to report that all was well at Hwange. However, it is sobering to note that 57 animals died even in a water-rich private concession comprising just four percent of the park's total area.

If all is well at Hwange for the moment, that is due solely to the ongoing efforts of the friends of Hwange. The park requires 5,000 liters of fuel every month to maintain the ten waterholes, and - at a special rate of US$1 per liter - this requires a monthly donation of US$5000 worth of diesel. And diesel isn't getting any cheaper.

The Save Hwange Trust would like to install solar power to replace the diesel-fuelled pumps as the means of pulling the groundwater to the surface. This would be more ecologically sensitive and more cost-effective in the long term, but the initial costs are daunting

Hwange National Park Zimbabwe

Hwange National Park is one of Africa's finest havens for wildlife and is home to vast herds of elephant, buffalo, zebra and has a very large concentration of giraffe. It is also home to many predators and endangered species of black rhino plus very large and varied birdlife over 350 species.

The park is situated on the main road between Bulawayo and the world famous Victoria Falls.

Hwange National Park covers just over 14 600 square kilometers. The Park carries 105 mammal species, including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. Elephant make up the largest proportion of the biomass estimated at over 25,000 depending on the migration from Chobe enclave.

All Zimbabwe's specially protected animals are to be found in Hwange and it is the only protected area where gemsbok and brown hyena occur in reasonable numbers. The population of wild dog to be found in Hwange is thought to be of one of the largest surviving groups in Africa today.

The landscape includes desert sand to sparse woodland as well as grasslands and granite outcrops. Due to the lack of water, man-made waterholes were introduced to sustain the animals through the dry season. The park has an interesting variety of landscapes with one part running alongside the North-eastern end of the Kalahari desert. The south is sandy with extensive forests and open grassland. A feature of the area is ancient fossil dunes - ancient sand dunes held together by vegetation.


To travel through Hwange National Park today is to see what much of the interior of Africa might have been like more then 150 years ago.

The lack of Government involvement and the lack of tourists due to the political instability have lead to the parks being run on nothing, with the infrastructure falling apart, and without the help of such organizations as Save Hwange Trust and others the park would have fallen apart a long time ago.

Anti Poaching Unit Hwange

Ill equipped game rangers continue to do their job against great odds, being paid a meager USD100 per month if they are lucky to get it, surviving on mealie meal and kapenta with no equipment to speak of they are the last bastion between the poachers and the animals they protect

Pump attendants Hwange

The pump attendants at the pans allocated to them are responsible for the maintenance of the camp sites and where there are no camp sites responsible for the ensuring of the pumps running 24 hours per day.

Once again their standard of living is shocking and very trying with very little if any amenities and bedding to rely on.

Their commitment to their job has to be seen to be believed.

General

The awareness of the plight of this great game reserve in Zimbabwe is not unusual in Africa, in Zimbabwe alone such great game parks as Mana Pools ,Chizarera, Matusadona all face the same pressure from poor Governments and the lack of understanding as to the value of the resources for tourism they have and it is only by people and companies support that this awareness can be bought to the mind of a public that wants to protect these wildernesses for future generations