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South African Town Digs Out Old Springs After Dam Runs Dry
When water ran out in Kei Mouth, South Africa, residents grabbed wheelbarrows and cleared tonnes of mud from abandoned freshwater springs to save their town. Within days, they turned forgotten reservoirs into a working water source while tourism season hung in the balance.
When the Amathole District Municipality announced drastic water rationing on January 26, the South African coastal town of Kei Mouth faced a crisis that could destroy its tourism economy. The Cwili dam had run completely dry after a brutal summer and below-normal rainfall.
The rationing was severe: water only every other day, none at night, and none on Fridays. For a town that depends on visitors, it was devastating news.
But instead of waiting for help, resident Brendon Freitag and his neighbors made a choice. "We decided that we can point fingers, and we really want to do so, but it was not going to get us anywhere," Freitag said.
The town had a secret weapon: Trevor Balzer, a retired engineer who once led South Africa's national drought response programs, had moved to Kei Mouth in 2020. Together with Freitag, he mobilized residents to tackle the problem themselves.
The solution lay buried under decades of neglect. Freshwater springs that once fed the town through old reservoir ponds had become choked with mud and overgrown with plants.
"Lots of us are old and fat," Freitag laughed, but the community showed up anyway. Armed with wheelbarrows, residents removed tonnes of mud by hand from the settling dams surrounding the springs.
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Within days, they had water flowing again into the old reservoir system. The work isn't finished, but the restored ponds now provide an emergency water source that can be pumped to homes and businesses.
Freitag, who owns the local Spar grocery store, spent his weekend distributing thousands of five-liter bottles of drinking water donated by Spar Eastern Cape to every family in Kei Mouth and neighboring Cwili. The community is now working on fixing pump lines and negotiating access to nearby farm dams.
The Ripple Effect
The Kei Mouth story offers a blueprint for drought-stricken communities across South Africa's Eastern Cape and Southern Cape regions. Towns like Knysna and Nelson Mandela Bay face similar water emergencies as climate patterns shift.
The community also raised R50,000 (about $2,800 USD) previously to fix leaks in their aging water network, which was losing 40% of supply. They're now pressing the municipality to address infrastructure problems while handling immediate needs themselves.
"We first get the work done, and then we fight," Freitag explained. His approach reflects a practical wisdom: when crisis hits, action beats blame.
The freshwater springs represent institutional memory made real. Older residents remembered the ponds from previous droughts and disasters, preserving knowledge that proved essential when modern systems failed.
Now this small coastal village has shown that community resilience can flow from forgotten sources when people choose cooperation over complaint.
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Based on reporting by Daily Maverick
This story was written by BrightWire based on verified news reports.
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