The Breede Valley, Drakenstein and surrounding areas have reached Day Zero, according to Gift of the Givers’ Dr Imtiaz Sooliman. He said that there is NO drinking water in these areas and that taps have run dry. Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management contacted Gift of the Givers over the weekend requesting urgent support for these regions. Four trucks left Bramley this morning carrying 120 tons of water. Mayor Coonrad Poole and possibly Mayor Antoinette Steyn or the Speaker of the Parliament was on hand to met the trucks on arrival.
“Farmers, managers, labourers and their families are urgently in need of drinking water. The rivers are dry and the dams are virtually empty. Gift of the Givers have received tremendous support from the people of South Africa for drought intervention. One agency has offered us 20 million litres of water, delivery of which commences this week,” said Dr Sooliman.
In the meantime truck loads of water by road and container loads by ship have already been sent to Cape Town. Water is being stored in various government facilities. He said distribution has been taking place to many institutions desperately requesting water. In essence when supply can’t meet demand then “we are at Day Zero. At many schools the taps have run dry already, there is no water for toilets nor for flushing. Requests for assistance is pouring in from multiple institutions throughout the Western Cape region and we are delivering as fast as we can.”
Earlier this last week, Gift of the Givers began the process of loading 42 containers of bottled water from its Logistics Centre at Bramley, and sent to Durban harbor bound for Cape Town. Gift of the Givers has been very active drilling boreholes in multiple areas to “save” as many communities as possible. Details Increased funding for boreholes will assist to increase the intervention exponentially.