Water Stories Program Evaluation
HASO and SOHA Foundation / Presented by Rosa Namises & Heike Wegener
Can there be a Pilot -Project at Community Gardens in Okadjikurunda?
November 29th to December 1st 2024
Proposal to Evaluate:
Is Okandjira a region with 26 households and 3000 ha land the right place to implement a water-story project by Zach Weiss?
1. Meeting the community at Ovitoto and explaining what we are trying to do (bringing in an international water expert to map the 3000 hectares and come up with a plan to generate long term water security.)
2. once the plan is complete they would return to train up a team (who would then have the skills to support other communities to do the same thing).
3. need a team to carry out the work and will try to raise money to pay people working in this a living wage.
How much interest/ buy in is there?
Are there young people from the community in the city able to come back for this project?
Is there someone who has the experience to lead on the organization of the community?
Can they let us know the names of the people very interested and capable to help with physical work, plus those who want to train to consult others?
What are appropriate wages for
4 weeks work
We assume it will take a year or two until enough water can be retained to re-start the permaculture garden in Okanjira.
November 29th, Friday
10am - 9pm
Introduction of each other, why we are here?
Water in it’s sacredness
Sharing of difficulties
Lunch
Going to visit different places let by the locals to go to the dam's
Dinner
Discussion and Water Videos
Participants
Otto Schaak (Okandjira since 2008, staying at sisters house, dunkies not so much live stock
Lurencia (Softness) Ilaku (Gardener, Crossbarmen)
Hendick Gowaseb (Dordabis, we have bare holes unfortunately with owner ship over it. They had to create a strategy. Open for strategies to come to of this program, Possibilities to come? Water searcher and maintenance
Poppie Westley Hoxobeb (Okandjira, taking care for goats)
Rivaldo Cowen Guriab (Windhoek, camera, translation, supports Rosa voluntary since some years)
Three people to come from Tsumeb because of transport issues (mid day)
Contents:
Water is life
If there is no water there is no life
Increasing water shortage in the area
Creating bore holes?
Water Pumps with solar penal?
Permaculture Garden here dried out
Water issues as the most important area to work on in Namibia
Contact with experts from Europe
Governments takes (to) long to take action
How can we help ourselves?
Ancestors had and have a sacred relation to water
Dig of personal boreholes without having positive change of the bigger community
Learning from each other
Heike is here to take the message over to the other people
Creating a Pilot Project of how to use water knowledge and find a new relation to water
Unfortunately three people from Okandjira did not come
Differentiate how we use water in Europe
Water Meditation
How we are connected with water
The fullness and the emptiness of the cup of water
How is your connection with water?
How to protect and make sure that we always will have enough water?
Sharing
Laurencia: you cannot live without water
Poppy: this moment when water is touching your body was strong. It was opening my eyes and my spirit.
Hendick: I am an expert of water what is running through my body. Vison: I was standing like a dry stick and a drop of water was bringing me back to life. A tree has water, the wind brings the water. We need the oxygen from the tree through the water
Otto: water is the most important thing in our life. It’s in all the liquids. Water ist the blood of Jesus. It’s sacred. Even if we had draught and our animals died still let’s say thanks to our god for water.
Cowen: water is wherever we are, around us, without there is no life. Sky, Clouds, earth. It’s healing makes the world goes round. Earth is like mother, water is like the father.
Heike: Grandfather stone, Grandmother sea. Interconnectedness of the water bodies. Feeling dryness here. Old wisdom of water keeping.
What are the difficulties we experience? What are the challenges we face with water in our region?
Water is rationed, there are boreholes of privat people who does not like to share. Once or twice if you’re lucky a week you get water for your water tanks. Garden gets dry. Bore holes from olden times of the white people. Not of the government but they help to maintain.
How did you store the water before colonization?
If water was found the elders were digging with their hands and than, braking branches to sign the place that’s not poison and put over it to protect the water that animal could not fall in, also in natural pools. The colonizer (germans) did poison the water because they did not want the natives to be independent with their water. The natives starts to die, because the signs where not safe anymore. The people were forced to work on the colonizer farms. From there they got the tools. The natives hat to pump - sometimes the whole day.
Now its a play that we grab this holes. Even Animals know that map. There are still this methods.
We the locals have to do a step so that the government can come in with two steps.
Mines around the northern part in Namibia. They are looking for water armes in the ground. The water is to grained out for the mines to get the resources out. Rivers were blocked. Dam’s were build, Underground tunnel draining the water. Mines of the mostly Chinese people also polluting water. The people of this regions have to leave. Now they are using wind to break the stones in the ground and water is treated with poison. Magnesium / Kalk? is natural in there. Water is contaminated with chlorine. F.e. in Khombat they we’re treating the water like that, magnesium level went down, less clean water. It brings brown teeth to the people. Water Fontaine in Gidion was named. The rivers are running die. Dame’s in Swakop taking the water away.
Poppie: in my region without water you cannot have cattle. They cannot breast feed. No milk. Grass is not growing. There is water in Midgard for human. There is a dam for animals you can use, but the water is bitter. You cannot use it for watering plants, it’s not tasty or healthy. The water in Midgard is also blocked by private people. Pipes are coming sometimes from 50 km away. To here from Midgard it’s 25km. The pipe is opened along the way and water is taken out too.
Deal: people was giving water 10 years for free. After 2005 they actually should have water by themselves. From 2015 on they should be independent. They should work on their own hole. No interest form locals to check this possibilities. Water is and was taken out. You have to check/ supervise it. Man who did it died. They wait for the government to step in. Lack of interest is all over. Lack of cooperation.
They buy dirty diesel for the machines. They would brake the machines. Some people decided to create a group to maintain the machines. Wind miles Farms are also in charge in the older days still they are. Came from the white south africans and German people. Still natives have no access. Depending on wind.
Natives are settled on dry land.
Tribalism, water places are not shared with other tribes.
Diesel machines which are pumping out the water. You need a person who is paid doing it. People don’t want to pay to do so. They have no money.
Solar panels just working in sun, and they are the target of thief’s.
How to organize yourself:
They have a diesel machine in the community where they share the costs (100ND /month). One man is paid for the maintenance.
Innovative ideas:
Creating our own windmills to pump water.
Hendick has inspirienced in that.
If the Goverment authority is involved: they will give you a diesel machine. Community has tot take care for it. Deliberation damage, Communites do not take care!!
How to bring water back to the ground?
How to restore the circle of water?
If there is a desperation for water we don’t think about how to find a long term solution. We just take the water out…but If we just take out water the ground level of the water will sink and we have to dig deeper and deeper bore holes and we will have more drought.
How to implement a water project if there is no deeper interest?
Lunch break 1 - 4:30pm
Four new participants to be introduced:
Josef Namiseb, know how to use tools, Rudolf Namiseb (Tsumeb) looking for water with the bottle, Christof Soul, searching water with a stick, Lazuras Hoxubeb
Living without water is not possible
Local person
Water is life, without life cannot move forward, unique, livestock, body, grass, water love, without water you loose everything
Local challenges
Pipes and equipment is missing, difficulties to contain water, water pipes burst, we try to fix it but often it does not help, blockages in the way of the water.
Afternoon Visit to explore
Windmill on top of the well close by
Visiting the dam close by.
Looking for possible water rescued places through the local expertise close by
Evening videos waterstory „reviving Rivers“ and FRMP
https://www.waterstories.com/
Reflection of the video:
Reminds on the permaculture gardening Project which is dry now
We can do something as a community
Visolela:
People could be brought here in march so they can teach others in their communities. We need to survey possible areas where land can be regenerated.
People here are experts and could spread this to be learned knowledge here in their own areas.
Beginning: somebody starts with an idea…than the community follows. Rainwater is passing by. Prepare for the dry time.
It’s easy when we work together. Many hands can build a house. One person has to start. The other will follow…as namibians if we do the same, we can have rain every year. Plans to restore the water. We don’t loose the rain water anymore. We can bring back the cycle of the rain season.
The dam we have been today if we would continuous work on that we would restore the water. It’s us who are closing the water flow. Afterwards when it goes well everyone want to join. All Namibians are like that (Hendick).
We can do better, we can work together, we have to love water. Show empathy and compassion towards water. The way you embrace water, the water will embrace you (Rudolf). We had sweaty hands and feed to come. Wen want to implement this project and learn!! This 1% of us will learn the next 5% and so on…
If water is floating it’s difficult to hold it. Drilling water is may be different and easier to hold…water get drilled out after the rain.
Water need to circulate.
Similar to that video you can store water for 6 month and than you can get back to the bore holes. Stretching the time of storing the water before we go back to the bore holes (Laurencia).
You can create a water flow to dam’s from the mountains in this ares (Rudolf). As a gardener I know I can water the plants with a bottle of water the other way round. It takes three days to get out.
November 30th, Saturday
10am - 9pm
Visit of the windmill
the local bore hole
as well as the sacred water place
considering / tuning in water restoring possibilities there
Lunch at the secret place than traveling back
Strategy for the region
Dinner
Discussion and Water Videos
Videos are taken by Cowen Rivaldo Guriab
Outing in the morning
Visit of the windmill
The windmill -pulling system is brocken, water has to be pullt out of the dwell by hand. Two people are needed.
The local bore hole
Was created 2011. The water arteria was not met fully. Water is limited.
Inspecting the pipes of Mindgard
The long way of the pipes from Midgard and it’s lacks we could easily see. The elder water man of the region (without somebody to come after him yet) was repairing the lack in 5 minutes with his hands.
Visit of the secret water place
Close to the settlement is a riverbed held in rocks with rock-ponds
Many ideas came up how to restore water there.
See video of Cowen.
Debrief of the visits - Reflections - clearing of questions
Visolela informs about her relationship (own reconnection) and her vision of the sacred place: water comes out the rocks after it was told of two friends. It can be a water place for many and could solve most of our challenges. It can bring the green back in the region.
How much interest/ buy in is there?
Are there young people from the community in the city able to come back for this project?
Is there someone who has the experience to lead on the organization of the community?
Can they let us know the names of the people very interested and capable to help with physical work?
Plus those who want to train to consult others?
Questions in the group:
Resourcing for gardening?
December 1st, Sunday
10am - 1pm
Cowen was filming it
Visit of the third bore hole, where there was no water found 5 years ago. It’s closer to the river. There is water 80m under the ground as the experts found out.
Visit of the reduced garden area and it’s ruin through the drought, connected with the pipes of Midgard too
Conclusion, reflection, next steps
Our cook made the introduction of the reflection
How desperately it is needed to bring our heads together
Rudolf
Learned a lot, important to move life forward
Open to start the recreation process and to learn more and bring in his knowledge
Creating pans, garden for micro organism
Christoph
First we could not accept the idea of water regeneration
He learned how the earth is destroyed
He like to give the knowledge back to his community to renew it
Joseph
Explored new regions
Bigger view on water, we need to preserve it
We need to share this information
Hendick
Thankful for being here, for what I learned. This was not in my mind
We talked about damaging our planet
We talked about hoe we can live with the water
Breathing in and breathing out…where do we get the air from?
We are water…
Let’s try to collect ourselves, we are part of it, Reconnect
Made out of sand and water
Let’s keep the water safe, recycling / restoring
It’s dying
How can we help each other?
Let’s try to built up ourselves and others to manifest water preservation
Having on mind set.
Laurencia
Thankful for Jesus Christ and Vislolea who has knowledge
Visolela is always transparent through that I can take care for my family
I did not go to school, and got so much positive energy of Visolela
I am open to forward what I learned
I learned how we wast water and how e could resource and heal the water circle.
I thought drilling and what we do usually her was a very mindful information
Mostly as namibians we live with drouths
We allow to water passes by
I want to learn more about the restoration process
I got an idea how to do that.
I like to train others.
The water stories thought me a lot
I bless this people who brought that back to earth and to us people!!
Otto
He did not come
Poppie Westly
Thankful for the teaching and visit and the important learning about water. I did not care about water before. Grow up in a region without water. Nobody was teaching us about water. We did not care. They used a pond and than the government came to bore a hole. Here I learned a new method. This method hast to be passe dow to the generations to come to preserve water. He learned from the other men. He saw things in practice, Physically. I will bring in myself in physically. Giving the knowledge from generation to generation
The eldest, Lazaras
Is in church for the first part of the morning…he did not come
He has no white system education
He carries a lot of old wisdom. He’s the only pipe man in the region. What to do if he’s not there anymore? Wistly has to bring more young people.
Cowen
I learned a lot. Many way how water can be preserved, natural ways, also to search for water. You can make squares of water connection, connection to mountains, how to create wett enviroments, you can call the rain through starting this methods, old tools and knowledge. It’s important to bring young people and to preserve our nature. That’s in our hands.
The water man farm
Invite young people to reconnect with the old knowledge for the project
Through doing you will attract others
Engage in the natural process
We have to lead the youngest, how to breath in and out
To receive and give becoming balanced
To store and use
Attraction through doing.
Importance of interest…than energy and other people will follow
Younger generation is rejecting the old ways
They are into simplicity
Layers of geology
They need to proof how it is possible to restore the water circle
How to activate the locals in Okanjira?
Thanks to our ancestors, the old wisdom which wants to come up again, the strong namibian landscape who is calling for restauration,
Thanks to Visolela and to the international support that this meeting can happen.
Lunch
end
Dec 1st 2024
A little update from here…after our three day Waterstory Workshop in Okadjikuruda.
We had a beautiful meeting with 7 men and one women who are exposed to the water issues in their communities with different knowledge about water. Through getting to know each other, sharing knowledge and perspectives, videos from waterstories.com and outings to different water places our group became a waterbody by itself: flowing, interested, facing challenges, learning from each other…
Our impression is that this is a good team to start with to be trained by Zach. One challenge is that the locals here in Okadjikurunda are not so interested yet. We just had an old men present here from the region who is taking care for the pipes - who has no-one to work with, Otto, who was partly interested, but did not come the last evening and today for the reflection. The third local person is Westly, a twenty years old motivated man, who is the goat and cattle header of Visolela. We talked about that’s needed to motivalte more young people to come in, also for the physical work to come to implement the pilot project.
We found Hendrick from Dordabis a person who could manage the team in the pilot phase when Zach goes after his research, training and implementation of about 7 days. He is an open minded person with knowledge and understanding of the water circle already. He also has an empathic attitude and interest for the whole group to work and come together. It would be supportive if there is an international team who could stay longer to support the process. We understood that a project-manifestation would take about 4 weeks.
All team members were open to stay for a period of 4 weeks also being away from their families.
I was writing minutes of the workshop. So that you can also get an deeper impression of the time we had together. Cowen was documenting especially the outings, so that Zach can also get a deeper understanding - before he comes- how the earth and water situation shows up here. And I guess he caught impressive moments which could be fantastic for the fundraising platform.
We are traveling tomorrow to Grootfontaine. We hope that we will have Internet that we can meet.
We will let you know as far as we are there
With love, Visolela and Heike
