22 Aug 2019

The mighty Thamalakane River in Maun is no more, at least for now. The river has dried up leaving dotted ponds where it used to flow.

The ponds have now turned into battle fields where the giants of land face-off with the ‘kings’ of the rivers. The scenes are scary and it is no longer safe to come nearer to where Thamalakane River used to flow.

The battle is between hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes, elephants, cattle and fishermen. Resembling the Battle for the High Seas, incidents of fierce fights between these giants and kings are reported almost every day.

Recently passersby at the old bridge witnessed a fierce fight between a hippo and a cow at a pond nearby which ended with the hippo killing the cow.

At another pond at Samedupi, fishermen and herd boys are reported to be at loggerheads. Fishermen are reported to be refusing herd boys to fetch the little water remaining for their cattle.

This is the painful reality caused by the drying up of the Thamalakane River.

Residents of Maun and surrounding villages are living in fear of animals roaming in search of water. Water species such as hippos and crocodiles have invaded the communities posing a danger to their lives as the drought take its toll.

Nxaraga is one of the villages  hard hit by drought. Residents are also worried about their safety due to a small pond at the western part of the village which has become a haven for different species including livestock as they flock there for the little water.

The species do not pose a danger to the community only but also to themselves as they are competing for space and the little water in the pond. The species include hippos, crocodiles, elephants, cattle, donkeys, goats, horses and buffaloes among others while some fishermen also use the pond to make a living.

The pond which is two kilometres away from the village has attracted a lot of livestock from places such as Makakung, Sehithwa and Kareng which used to drink from Lake Ngami. The he lake has also dried up Carcasses are scattered around the pond.

In an interview, the village chief, Kgosi Gaolatlhe Kgosigaenyatswe said what was happening at the pond was a disaster.

He said they experienced severe droughts in previous years but had never come across such incidents where animals kill each other for water.

Mr Kgosigaenyatswe added the number of elephants was increasing, and the conflict had become frequent.

He attributed the sad situation to the decline of water level due to the less rainfall experienced in Angola and in the Okavango Delta. The water, he said reached Botswana in April and started to spread throughout the alluvial fan slowly filling up the channels, backflows and floodplains.

Kgosi Kgosigaenyatswe revealed that they expected the inflows around July/August adding that Nxaraga River fills up the Toteng one which forms part of the Thamalakane River.

A concerned farmer who preferred to remain anonymous said living conditions had become hard because they could not move around freely and safely any more.

He said they could not go to the bush in search of their livestock nor visit relatives because of the marauding animals.

“At night, the elephants come to our homes and we cannot go to the bush when nature calls because of fear of elephants and buffaloes,” he lamented.

He said government should consider relocating the animals or drill boreholes to water them.

An official from Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Dr Comfort Nkgowe said they were aware of the situation at Nxaraga and Lake Ngami noting that efforts were underway to address it.

He explained that there were two ponds at the Nxaraga village being Nxaicha and Nxaraga which were 2.3 km apart.

During the assessment, he said they found out that due to low water levels many hippos had relocated from Nxaicha pond to Nxaraga pond which had more than 200 hippos. This he said had resulted to a serious competition for the little resource and frequent territorial fights.

He said more than ten hippos had died due to over population at the pond and fights.

To address the situation, Dr Nkgowe explained that they had identified 19 boreholes of which four were close to Nxaicha pond and the rest were close to Nxaraga pond. He said they were consulting with the Department of Water Affairs to determine the boreholes’ yields.

“We have two approaches, the first one is to establish water points and the second one is to connect engines to the water points if we are satisfied with the borehole yields because our intention is to water the animals,” he said.

Dr Nkgowe revealed that they had no intention to relocate the hippos because there were many and the exercise would be costly. He added that  hippos were territorial and if they were to be relocated there would be commotion and serious fights.

 

Furthermore, he stated that in areas like Maun, they had embarked on translocation exercise to other areas as the hippos were now invading the communities in search of grass.

The department started the exercise at Backpackers area.

Dr Nkgowe also said they were feeding the hippos and were responding well.

Before translocation, he said consultation with the community would be conducted to inform them about the exercise. He appreciated that some stakeholders particularly some non-government organisations had showed interest to participate in the exercise.

He appealed to the communities to be vigilant, saying  animals when outside their usual surrounding were easily agitated. He cautioned them against throwing stones at the animals and to report to relevant authorities if they spot the animals. ENDS