Hippo Water Roller Project

Nedbank Foundation has done it again! The Foundation added a further 600 Hippo water rollers to their 2011 sponsorship of the Hippo Water Roller Project.

This time the communities of the towns of Lusikisiki and Flagstaff in the Ingquza Hill Municipality in the Eastern Cape took ownership of the rollers.

The handover was held on 21 November 2011 and local residents of 12 villages in the area attended the joyous occasion.

News Coverage:

The New Age, Eastern Cape

For Noncedile Tshawe, 53, from Cabekwane location in Goso village in Lusikisiki, water has been an ongoing struggle. She has to fetch her daily requirements from the river for her family of seven.

Tshawe said she walked an hour to the river and back just to get water using a 20-litre bucket, which she carried on her head. The road between the river and Cabekwane location was mountainous and forested, said Tshawe.

600 Hippo water rollers sponsored by the Nedbank Foundation were handed over to the rural community of Mothibastad in Kuruman today 7 October 2011.

Kuruman is a town with 12,701 inhabitants in Northern Cape province of South Africa, famous for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature bringing water from deep underground to the surface in the Kalahari Desert.

News Coverage:

1. Kathu Gazette, a regional newspaper in the Northern Cape:

• http://kathugazette.com/wordpress/2011/10/magojaneng-residents-receive-hippo-water-rollers/

2. Clever Green, Water Conservation Technologies: 

• http://clevergreen.co.za/2011/10/12/water-rollers-to-improve-access-to-scarce-resource/

Cargill has invested in 360 x Hippo Water Rollers at a total investment of $45,000 to support local small-scale cotton farmers in Zambia. The rollers were transported by road from South Africa during December 2011 to Cargill's Zambia operation.

Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. It is also one of the world's leading cotton traders and has been active in Zambia since 2006.

Cargill supports initiatives to improve agricultural working practices and to help farmers increase their incomes and deliver benefits to local communities. One such initiative is the company's safe drinking water programme which has built numerous wells in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi – each well serving communities of up to 200 people.

While Cargill has plans to drill more wells to provide safe, clean water supply, it also recognized that small scale cotton farmers still carry water in buckets from the water source to their cotton trees. By the time they have watered just 1 hectare of trees, these farmers have walked 40km carrying heavy buckets of water which is very strenuous and time consuming.