KZN writer sinking boreholes, not putts
LIKE any golfer, Kwazulu-natalbased sports writer Iqbal Khan, 68, knows all there is to know about an 18-hole golf course – the only difference is his concept of sinking a putt involves a whole new ball game.
It is quite a long story, but the bottom line is that Khan believes that an idea he has to bring much-needed water to regions devastated by water shortages is workable and doable.
“I have always tried to do my bit for those less fortunate and when I retired from full-time journalism a few years ago I wanted to find a niche in the volunteer field that I could get my teeth into, something that could improve the quality of life for families living in difficult circumstances.”
It was the crippling drought and the dire shortages of water that decided him on a course of action.
“When you don’t have water, the outlook is pretty bleak. There are rural areas where there is no running water and little left in the rivers. Children have to spend half their morning collecting what water they can for sanitation, which means studies often have to take second place. The stories are heartbreaking.”
Khan’s answer is boreholes – 18 for starters in KZN, equivalent to an 18-hole golf course – initiating them at rural schools and community centres where taps had run dry years ago.
“I realised that many people would be sceptical about the feasibility of such a project and how it would be funded. But I am a determined person so wasn’t going to be put off.”
Teaming up with a one-time school friend and business associate, Abdul Kader Jeewa, 68, Khan set about formulating a strategy that would involve an engineering contractor with borehole expertise – and a water diviner to pinpoint suitable underground courses.
One of their first projects was in Glendale on the North Coast, sponsored by the Spar Group. Others were in umbumbulu on the South Coast, Cool Air, Wartburg and Lower Molweni where chronic water shortages led to poverty and hardship that made formal learning hard at schools.
“We located underground water in a school ground. The next hurdle was to finance the cost of sinking a borehole and extracting and pumping the water that could be used by the school and the surrounding community.
It was a plan, says Khan’s Water for Life partner Jeewa, that appealed to donor organisations and the corporate responsibility sector.
“The drought has made people acutely aware that without water, the social and economic future of the country is in jeopardy. So far, businesses have been generous and supportive. We have completed five boreholes in hard-hit areas but we have funding for another 13 on the South Coast and in Northern Natal. We expect to complete the project by the end of April.”
But with water comes the responsibility not to abuse the service.
“As you can be imagine,” says Khan, “the joy on people’s faces when the first gush appears is magical”.
We witnessed a touch of that magic in the valley of Wybank, where roads are as steep as ski slopes. At the Al Baraka Water and Sanitation Project centre, one of the boreholes had just Young mother Nonhlanhla Mchunu enjoys her first taste of borehole water.with her are project water pioneers Abdul Kader Jeewa, left, and Iqbal Khan.
been completed. We met young mom Nonhlanhla Mchunu, who had come to the taps for the first time.
“I can’t believe I won’t have to go to the river any more,” she beamed. “It is lovely clean water. I am so happy.”
The borehole water is abundant and CSIR approved. It is pumped to a nearby holding tank, which as Khan explains, is now always full.
“What is important,” he says, “is to instil the idea that water is a commodity that needs to be cared for and preserved. The big lesson we have learnt is that wasted water went underground. Now we have to find
ways of bringing it back up.”
Each borehole sunk is registered with the Department of Water Affairs and the water extracted is tested for safety and usability.
Remember how the Y-shaped willow stick was traditionally used to find water? “It’s still the same method,” says Khan. “We have a water diviner, who gets it right every time. These are skills we must never lose.”
This KZN Water for Life team plans to embark on an even bigger project. It is in talks with a financial organisation and the community about ways to ease Cape Town’s plight.