Water for Hwange: Q1 2019 PROGRESS UPDATE

With a challenging drought this year, Imvelo Safari Lodges is working hard on their Water for Hwange Project to build solar water pumps to support the wildlife in in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe! The project will replace old dirty diesel water pumps with new pumps that reduce the carbon footprint in these areas by providing a more eco-friendly environment for wildlife and human population surrounding the boundary of Hwange National Park.

So far this year, planning has taken place and quotes are out for constructing pumps at the following sites: Mfagazaan location inside the park, Mbazu site in the park, the Makeni village and the Emanaleni village. The quotes are expected to be finalized by the end of this month and deposits put down to move into the next phase of this project. The scope of work for each site is as follows. For the Mfagazaan site, there is currently an existing small solar panel array, which is insufficient and will be supplemented with a Kubota diesel generator unit as part of the upgrade. At the Mbazu location, the project will entail installing two solar diesel hybridized pumps with two solar arrays and one large diesel pump.

For the Makeni village, the hand operated bush pump will be replaced with a solar array driving an electric submersible pump to fill a new 2,000 liter water tank on a low stand with spigot. Lastly, the Emanaleni village contains an old diesel engine running a mono pump. The project will replace this pump with a solar array and electric submersible pump that will allow 2,000 liters of water on low stand with spigot. The plan is to have this all completed by mid-June and have all the wells, arrays and pumps operational by June 15th! We look forward to sharing more information about this project soon!

Project Name: Water for Hwange
Organization Name: Water for Wildlife Trust / Imvelo Safari Lodges Pvt Ltd
Year Grant Awarded: 2018
Progress Update: Quarter 1, 2019 Project Update