3. The Gift Of Water
As you can imagine, starting up a farm won’t get very far if you don’t have water… and that was us at the very beginning.
Without sounding dramatic here, water is one of the most precious gifts we have on this planet. Without it, life as we know it would simply not exist.
In a lot of countries, water is so easily accessible that going without never needs to be a concern. It’s just there, coming straight out of the tap whenever we need it.
Up here in the Kavango area however, it’s quite different.
Bringing clean drinking water to the area was our top mission from the start. When we first arrived there was nothing, and as you can imagine, starting up a farm won’t get you very far if you don’t have water… that was us at the very beginning.
THE OKAVANGO
One of the main reasons we chose this location for the Agroforest was because of the river. The beautiful Okavango River that flows from Angola, through northern Namibian, and into Botswana. Home of Hippo’s and Crocodiles, and much more wildlife further down, this river provides for many.
This is the water source of the locals – they drink it, bathe in it, wash clothes in it, and walk miles carrying it back to their villages.
how we started
At the beginning, we luckily had the river for back up too, we were filling canisters of drinking water at the neighbours and washing in the river.
In the dry season it’s safer to go there because the water is so low. There are many areas with rocks, meaning you’d see if a hippo or crocodile was coming with enough time to take safety. Plus, crocodiles don’t like to walk over shallow areas because it’s uncomfortable on their bellies.
Only 5 minutes walk from our camp area, we found a spot that we now call ‘The Rocks’.
Every evening, at the spot just next to our property, we’d find local women there washing clothes. People bathing and enjoying the cool water.
With our natural instincts on full alert, we would dip in the river and wash off the dirt from a hot working day. (Even once we got water on the property, we would still like to come down for sunset).
Now it’s rainy season, and the water has raised around 5 meters. The rocks are fully submerged and crocs have been spotted close by. During this time, both us and the local community are really grateful we have fresh water elsewhere.
Bringing water to the land
First Phase:
At the beginning, we invested in a small generator to pump water from the river. The water travelled about 50 meters up the property into a 10,000-litre tank. From there, we set up our DIY water system around the central work/camp area. We also added a tap for the locals, and soon enough we had 100-200 people coming each day to fill up their canisters.
Although this was never our final solution, this was a really great upgrade. It meant we could properly start growing our seedlings, setting up our first crop gardens, moving onto the next level with the farm, and of course… showers!
Second Phase:
In September 2022, the process for accessing our own water source began.
Experts told us that just beneath us lay a huge aquifer – a sand basin with fresh water roughly 100 x 100 km long. For years, the water travels underground from Angolan rainfall, and eventually reaches this basin. But here’s the most amazing part – 40m deep in the Earth, in between the sand, lies a thick layer of clay (around 10m thick). The clay is so dense that only the water can get through, therefore literally creating an underground filter.
Our borehole was drilled 112m deep, meaning we are accessing some of the cleanest drinking water in the area, so good that you could even bottle it. Honestly it blows our mind everyday!
However, getting it up to surface level is a whole other aspect.
Third Phase:
For months we had the borehole drilled but no way of getting the water out. Then finally in December 2022, we had our Solar Pump fitted.
With 14 Solar Panels, the energy powers a pump in the Earth, and sucks the water up to the surface. Technically, we now have enough solar energy to pump up 20,000 litres of water an hour! Another thing that blows our mind everyday.
Now, our tank gets filled up in the mornings with fresh water from the Earth, drinkable straight from the tap.
We added an extra tap solely for the locals to come and fill up too - now they’ll always have access to clean drinking water - away from the crocodiles, that doesn’t put their lives in danger everytime they go to fetch it.
It’s easy to say that this has been our most exciting development so far.
I hope you enjoyed reading!
Follow @aywaforestfarm for more recent updates.
All our love,
Loree & Hanjo.