We fixed a borehole. So what next?

By Luyanda Mndzebele,

In 2022, after graduating from high school, I knew it was time my gardening grew beyond the boundaries of my backyard. After several years including the Covid-19 years of growing spinach, tomatoes and all vegetables you could think of in my garden, something told me I had to learn more to become an effective farmer. I already had been named the whizzkid who believes agriculture can transform the world after excelling nationally in my form three exams. I held that belief tightly to my chest. I knew though that vegetables and plants, even the goats, cattle in my father’s kraal do not survive by themselves. They need water, nutrients and an ecosystem that supports them. Whilst gardening in Hlane I had to quickly adapt to weather variations and drought spells and sometimes I walked long distances to collect water for my plants. My garden fed my family, my community and later my dreams.

I applied to be a volunteer at several organizations in Eswatini working on climate change adaptation. Some of my attempts were not successful. It was not common to have a fresh high school graduate teen, at your organisation, even less so a girl. COSPE Eswatini and PELUM Eswatini gave me a chance after interviewing me and understanding that my love for the environment was more than a seasonal fad.

Whilst with these two organisations, I was able to engage in their activities from Permaculture and urban farming to community engagement by visiting water stressed communities in Eswatini. On one particular day we fixed boreholes for two communities. A few years earlier another organisation had performed a miracle for the community by building a borehole for them. However, the borehole failed later because there was no maintenance. It was a fancy gift with no insurance.

This is not an isolated story and happens in many places; rural communities are often given a short term solution without the tools to solve the same problem in the long term. How much effort is put into making sure the borehole is fixed later? As a result, communities often move ten steps forward and twenty steps backwards.

From my experiences working as a youth volunteer at COSPE and my experience as a teen farmer, I am thinking and looking critically at building more sustainable solutions. Not just the ones that make headlines when ribbons are cut and we claim to have transformed thousands of lives. Looking beyond this is key. Building systems that outlive donor funding. Where communities don’t need the next organisation to have access to water.

Spaces where young girls with an interest in plants and agriculture are able to see opportunities and not failures in the field.

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