By Tselane Moiloa
QWA QWA – Thirty volunteers in Ficksburg earned R20 000 in prize money at the recent Women in Water awards for cleaning up the Caledon River bed.
In 2010, Matshele Raletooane canvassed women around Ficksburg to start cleaning their streets. The idea to adopt a river they could take care of came after Raletooane saw the deputy minister of water affairs Rejoice Mabhudafasi talking about the project on a news bulletin.
“Initially there were just 10 of us but that grew to 30. After seeing the project on television, we decided to also give it a try. We used different community media to get people, especially women, to join us in our cleaning campaign,” she said.
“We did not know what to do exactly and how to clean a river until last year. We were just going there daily and taking things out of the river,” said Mapulneg Mothijoa, who joined the project.
“Even though we were not getting anything out of it, it was way better than sitting at home doing nothing. What kept us going was the idea that maybe after some time and through our efforts, the water from the river would be safe for consumption especially because of the water problems in Ficksburg,” she added.
The group started receiving training from the department and different institutions last year. The training included first-aid and how to handle snakes.
“We believe in the idea of starting work first, and the money will come in later,” Mothijoa said.
Ficksburg has serious water problems which were highlighted following a protest march to the Setsoto municipal offices last year which resulted in the death of community activist, Andries Tatane.
Tatane’s wife, Rose, also joined the project which came third position in the Adopt-A-River category at the national awards.
“I was a victim of lack of water, which led to me losing my husband. That is why I joined the project,” she said.
Another Free State project, the agricultural Ikaheng MaAfrika Project based in Odendaalsrus, won third position in the Water Conservation and Demand Management category. “We started planting vegetables so that we could feed our families, and only when we saw the demand for it and got more land did we sell to the public,” said Alice Mokotjo who initiated it.
The group consisting of eight women and four men started planting pumpkin, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans and cabbage in response to unemployment in their township.
“We got together and asked for land from the municipality. We started with one hectare but we are now on five hectares but we still need an extension of land because we cannot plant enough as required by the market,” Mokotjo added.
The recognition was due to the way in which the project uses water. Since a borehole they used to water their crops dried out, they have resorted to a water conserving process known as mulching. Through this process, they use two litre bottles and a bucket to direct the water directly to the plants.
“All we need right now is to buy our own tractor and that is where the prize money is going. We also cannot stay on communal land for much longer because we need to give emerging farmers a place to operate from as well,” Mokotjo said.
