Story by NOMASWAZI NKOSI
Pretoria - Annemie de Lange has offered her Waterkloof home for people to drop off as much water as possible to be donated to two Free State communities that have been hit by drought.
“So far we have collected 36 000 litres. We will still be collecting more from two schools and hope to have 40 000 litres by tomorrow (Saturday),” she said.
The water will be transported to Tweespruit and Smithfield with the help of Shoprite.
“The project was initiated by the Reforming Church of Pretoria and driven by the gay and lesbian community of the city. I was just the co-ordinator.”
Thousands of bottles of water cover the yard of De Lange’s home, which she shares with her wife Hanna. The water was donated by churches and schools.
“This is our second collection. We did one in January and collected 17 000 litres, distributed in Senekal, also in the Free State.”
De Lange said she had the need to contribute in some way to help with the drought.
Operation Hydrate, meanwhile, announced it had allocated R1 million to fund the drilling of 15 boreholes in the areas worst affected by the drought.
The civil society group, formed at the beginning of the year, has already donated over 7 million litres of water. It will shift its focus from water donations to drilling boreholes.
“We will continue to deliver thousands of litres of bottled water for drinking purposes to affected areas, but we are now moving into phase two, which is boreholes,” said Operation Hydrate’s Yaseen Theba.
Operation Hydrate will be distributing 10 truckloads of water to Modimolle and Tzaneen in Limpopo, Barberton and Nelspruit in Mpumalanga and Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah, have come out in support of Operation Hydrate. “We are very sad and concerned about the drought. But we are thrilled to see the response of so many through Operation Hydrate. It is compassion in action.”
Operation Hydrate’s Yusuf Abramjee thanked the Tutus for again leading the way and said they valued their support.
The Cabinet also expressed appreciation for the spirit of ubuntu shown by Operation Hydrate.
Pretoria News