With Namibia in a severe drought, all the natural pans in the Nyae Nyae were dry. Fortunately, Stephan has put in 20 solar pumps and so far, they are pumping enough water for ALL the wildlife, elephant to birds and everything in between. When Stephen took over there was only two pumps and he witnessed animals dying in a drought because there was not enough water. Since he took over the area and got the pumps up and running, the PG has increased, the elephant are staying in the Nyae Nyae which decreases conflict with the people. Each pump and panel cost thousands of dollars which comes only from hunters dollars. If it was not for us, the wildlife would be dying right now.


Not only the expense, but then you have to maintain them, clean them, protect them from elephant. Hunter dollars at work.

Mighty dry looking country.
Reminds me of West Texas, except we have no elephant.

Ok, that's great.
Where's the water hole or trough now?

How's he keeping the animals out of the
pump area? Looks quite open in this picture.

Thanks for sharing, Iv'e wondered how deep the
water table is around the country.

George

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Ok, that's great.
Where's the water hole or trough now?

How's he keeping the animals out of the
pump area? Looks quite open in this picture.

Thanks for sharing, Iv'e wondered how deep the
water table is around the country.

George

The troughs are usually a couple hundred yards away from the pumps, they fill up then the water runs out on the ground forming a natural pan. This pump has a moat dug around it, you can see the dirt piled up. All the others have a wall built around them. The water tables, to get reliable water, varies, this one is a little over 200'. Some were half that.

Got back from a Namibia hunt on 1 September. The 68,000 acre game farm did not have a single blade of grass. I began hunting there in 1994 and this is the worst drought ever seen.

Solar pumps are giving the wildlife the necessary water. NOTE: All the wiring and the solar panels are protected from baboon by razor wire.

Browsers are fine with eland, kudu, damara dik dik good. Among grazers only two blue wildebeest and one hartebeest are left. The gemsbok and the zebra are alive due to a combination of bought-in grass, with a Lucerne topping, and pellets that the farm makes from blackthorn tops, grass, oil, salt. My Master Hunting Guide and I dropped eight or so bags of grass at a different water point every day we went out, emptying the bags out in a line to keep the game from fighting over the grass. Pellets went into a tray up off the ground.

Elephant regularly break fences to get in to have water and fence repair is a twice-weekly effort.

It's a tough time for sure with no word yet on what the coming rainy season might bring.

Regards

Wow! Sad state of affairs! Thank you Stephan, for your fine work and the hunters who have financially made it possible to save the wildlife there.

Pumping water is certainly helping, however we also have wildlife falling over around waterpoints.

One thing is for sure, the wildlife that survives this drought with be shittough. But we can still lose our genetic pool if we do not receive rains this year. The animals simply cannot survive another year and culling is no longer an option to reduce demand.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Pumping water is certainly helping, however we also have wildlife falling over around waterpoints.

One thing is for sure, the wildlife that survives this drought with be shittough. But we can still lose our genetic pool if we do not receive rains this year. The animals simply cannot survive another year and culling is no longer an option to reduce demand.

The game farms are hit the hardest and will lose most of their game. However, in the Nyae Nyae the food is abundant. As long as Stephan keeps the water flowing, there is more than enough to eat. As you can see in the picture, it is below carrying capacity.

Completely awesome - and a great use of license and trophy fees.

But you'll never convince the anti's of that...