Makhanda gets the gift of water

GIFT of the Givers teams blessed Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) with the gift of water as Day Zero approached due to a drought in the area.

The relief organisation said messages of jubilant anticipation had been pouring in, “conveyed to us by no less than the municipality itself and the local media”.

Tuesday was the ninth day that thousands of residents had been without water. The Gift of the Givers team and six trucks arrived in Port Elizabeth in the early hours of the morning. Three trucks loaded the bottled water at a local bottling plant at 8am and at 11am, the Gift of the Givers team left in convoys.

SAPS escorted the vehicles, joined by the Makhanda road traffic inspectorate, and led they way to the municipality, where they met with the mayor, municipal manager and councillors.

Twenty Gift of the Givers team members, assisted by the SANDF, local government and others, helped to hand out the water.

“The municipality has been remarkable in their humility, co-operation and preparations to receive the Gift of the Givers teams and supplies,” said its founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman.

When the team arrived in Makhanda, the municipality hosted a short programme, including a brief talk by Gift of the Givers’ Dr Gideon Groenewald, a hydrologist, geologist and paleontologist, on the drought crisis in the southern hemisphere.