KAKEKETE – Kakekete villagers, deep in the forests of Ndiyona constituency, have constructed a wall made of rocks around their water reservoir to prevent elephants from damaging them.

The village is located in the George Mukoya conservancy bordering Khaudum National Park.
When one enters the village, the rocky fence can be seen around the tanks. Villagers complained the elephants always invade their peace and used to cause damage to their water source, so some years back they mooted the idea to save their water infrastructure from the constant damage being caused by these wild animals. “This was a collective idea that led us to achieve this; we asked ourselves how can we protect our water tanks from these jumbos and in the end, we agreed on this.

After that we went to seek transport assistance and  went to pick the stones that we used here. We got a government truck through the Ndiyona constituency office and we transported the stones and built this and the elephants have not hindered our water since then,” said Clemence Likuwa, whom New Era found at the borehole which has water tanks surrounded by a rocky wall.

“This idea has worked as in the past few years we have not seen damage to these tanks,” Likuwa noted.
Various villages in the two Kavango regions are facing problems with wildlife – they always encounter human-wildlife conflict and their homesteads and water reservoirs are damaged, especially by elephants. Some villages are now building trenches to prevent elephants from knocking down their water tanks.