This week has seen another important step for the sustainability and survival of the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary (ADIWS), as we drilled two (of three) new boreholes, securing fresh sources of water for our lions, tigers, pigs, cows, chickens, geese, ducks, antelope, plus indigenous wildlife, and the people looking after them.
The two new boreholes are 40m/131ft and 60m/196ft deep, with solar powered pumps to carry the water to our storage tanks. This adds to the work on installing sanctuary-wide water filtration and recycling for all grey water (from showers, washing machines, sinks etc) so that it can be re-used for watering plants, cleaning vehicles etc. The new boreholes mean in addition to conserving current water supplies, we can quadruple our available fresh water.
This year had seen an extended drought in our region of South Africa and our lake briefly dried up for the first time ever. Thankfully our main borehole kept pumping water, enabling us to provide water for the wildlife and free ranging animals like our horses and donkeys, as well as providing supplies to our team living locally, to take home for their families. In future, we will have a borehole dedicated to keeping the lake level up, for our free-roaming domestics and wildlife. With climate change increasing – and the lack of action to slow it – the number of extreme weather events including extended periods of drought are set to rise, so this week has been critical for long-term water security. The extended periods of drought also brought another danger: wildfires, as Los Angeles saw to devastating effect. We hope over the coming year to boost ADIWS water storage and with that, also extending our firefighting measures.
ADI Wildlife Sanctuary 