South Africa’s Water Warriors Help Farmers After Eight Years of Drought

Farmers in the Northern Cape region of South Africa have been struggling with eight years of drought. But locals stepped up to help: just this month in Kenhardt, they handed out feed, goods – and 37,000 liters of water!

Set up two years ago, the South African “Water Warriors” have been driving their pickup trucks to farmers hit by drought, providing relief supplies to help protect their livestock and agriculture.

“We farm in hard country,” says Willem Symington, farmer and head of disaster management at Agri SA, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “But when it comes to donations, and people are good to you, that’s when you cannot control your emotions anymore.”

The region has last year recorded its lowest average rainfall since 1933, creating devastating dry periods as farmers’ livestock – which occupy 70% of the region’s land – rely heavily on feed and water. But with the recent immense help of locals, farmers have been able to better protect their sheep, cattle and game.