Sustainable solutions to water shortages are being celebrated by Addo Elephant National Park as the Eastern Cape contends with the effects of a severe and ongoing drought that has threatened the park’s wildlife.
In the past, Addo, which has just celebrated its 90th birthday, has had to have water pumped into its dams by the municipality.
Powered by diesel-hungry generators, the pumps drew up tens of thousands of litres of water into the park’s lakes and watering holes. The diesel generators were also noisy and released significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
SANParks has recently converted the design of the water pumps to use solar panels as a power source.
The park has also converted most of its staff accommodation to have solar geysers, a move park manager Nick de Goede said: “has significantly reduced costs associated with diesel-run water pumps”.
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“This is the driest it’s been in Addo in 90 years. We were lucky to have about 40mm of rain last week. That’s the most rain I’ve seen in Addo since I came here,” he said.
“In the past year we’ve changed every diesel-generated pump and it is interesting to see that with the sun we are able to pump more water than we have ever been able to pump.”
Park management is also talking to businesses looking to offset their carbon emissions through the funding of conservation of the spekboom succulent plant, which is indigenous to the Eastern Cape and is known for its super carbon dioxide absorption qualities and resilience.
De Goede says: “Spekboom absorbs the carbon and pushes out pure oxygen. It is the most important plant from that point of view.”
Under good conditions, wildlife did not feed off the spekboom, but because the plant thrives in drought, the animals had now turned to eat it.
“It’s an awesome plant. It grows very easily, it doesn’t need a lot of rain, and it does not need water. You can see [despite the drought] that the spekboom is in full bloom.”
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