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The DA has requested the Kamiesberg local municipality and the Namaqua district municipality to assist a group of smallholder farmers from Spoegrivier, who are going to great lengths to collect water to keep their crops and livestock alive.

An oversight inspection to the farmers’ vegetable garden last week, by myself and Constituency Head, Veronica van Dyk, revealed a dry plot of land with a plantation of spanspek, watermelon and pumpkins. All the vegetables are watered by hand. See pic here.

While the piece of land has two boreholes, neither of them is connected to a pump. The farmers therefore walk to the entrance of the town with a wheelbarrow and cooldrink bottles, which they fill up from an underground water source. See pics here, here and here.

They do this every single day, to keep their animals and their crops alive, showing great dedication to their farming initiative.

I have written to the Mayors of the Kamiesberg and Namaqua District municipality asking for an intervention by way of the installation of a solar or wind pump, to allow them to directly access the water on the land that they are farming. This is the least that can be done to support both the sustainability of this farming business and local food production.

Issued by Councillor Esmé Hough - Namaqua District Municipality