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Hwange fuel delivery
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF)
October 18, 2007

We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to those of you who responded to our appeal for funds to purchase fuel for the water pumps in Hwange National Park. We have not yet reached our target of 20 000 litres but we were able to buy 10 000 litres of diesel from Redan Petroleum, which was delivered to the park on the 17th October. We are very grateful to Redan for managing to source the fuel for us. This could not have been easy in view of the severe fuel shortage.

There have been reports of fuel tankers being hi-jacked on the stretch of road from Bulawayo to Hwange so we escorted the fuel tanker to ensure our precious commodity arrived safely at its destination.

A consignment of fuel had also been ordered from Redan for the ten pans that are being looked after by Friends of Hwange and Wildlife Environment Zimbabwe and their consignment was in with ours.

Those of you who have travelled the 800km by road from Harare to Hwange will know that the trip is quite gruelling under any circumstances, but even more so when the temperature is hovering around 40 degrees celcius and things don't go according to plan. The fuel tanker had a blowout on one of its outer rear tyres about 200km from Hwange, due, no doubt to the searing heat of the tarmac. To compound matters, there was no spare tyre so we changed the two rear tyres around so that the damaged one was on the inside. This took the best part of an hour because the mudguard had been damaged by the blown out tyre.


If the tanker had a second blowout, we would have been in serious trouble so we pressed on at 40kph to try and prevent it from happening again. By this time, it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we had been on the road since 4 that morning.

The driver was not familiar with Hwange and he would have had a problem finding the Friends of Hwange fuel storage depot so we turned off the main road and escorted him the 36 km on rough, dirt roads to the depot. We finally arrived there at about 8pm, offloaded their fuel and then escorted the tanker another 45km on dirt roads through the game park to Main Camp.

We arrived hungry and exhausted at Main Camp at around 11pm only to find that the whole camp was in total darkness, so any hopes we may have had regarding food, bathing or sleeping in a bed, were quickly dispelled. We had to settle for the 5 star accommodation of our car.

The next morning, the camp came alive and we offloaded the fuel into the Main Camp underground tanks.

Thank you very much to Sid Kerry of Pietermaritzburg who donated 24 pairs of brand new boots for the pump attendants. We delivered 10 pairs to the Friends of Hwange for the attendants at their 10 pans and we handed the other 14 pairs over to Main Camp for distribution to other pump attendants around the park.

We also handed over 11 landrover tubes donated by the Save Foundation of Australia.

On our return trip, we went through the game park towards Sinamatella, stopping at various pans along the way. We found that several pans were dry and the few that had water were very low but despite this, we didn't see any evidence of animals in poor condition or dying of dehydration. It seems that through the combined efforts of Friends of Hwange, WEZ and the dedication of the Hwange National Parks staff, under the expert direction of Senior Warden Arthur Musakwa, a repetition of the crisis situation of 2005 has so far been averted. In the current economic climate, with desperate shortages of fuel and basic commodities, this is no mean feat and we congratulate everyone who is playing a part in keeping Hwange National Park alive, in particular, Friends of Hwange, WEZ, Save Hwange Trust of Cape Town, Barry Wolhuter, Mario Gomez, Nicholas Duncan of the Save Foundation of Australia and John Gillon of the Hwange Conservation Society (UK).

We believe that solution to the water problems in Hwange National Park lies in introducing solar driven pumps. We have a free and unlimited source of energy in the sun and although the initial costs would be high, in the long run, the savings would be unprecedented. The cost of running and maintaining diesel engines is astronomical, not to mention the difficulty of obtaining the fuel and it is not only the pumps that require fuel. The vehicles that drive from pan to pan to refuel the pump engines, also need fuel and the constant driving around creates wear and tear on the vehicles. If anybody has expert knowledge of solar driven pumps, please contact us because we would be grateful for some advice on this subject. (contact details below).

Thanks to the following people who have assisted us with funds for fuel, the animals in Hwange National Park will be assured of water for the next month:

Barbara Bowman
Corina Straatsma (HIVOS)
Alex Charlton
Paula and Ernest Blomkamp
Mike Myers
Kari Hess
John Dawson
Niall Rooney
Craig Wilson
Tony Petter-Bowyer
Don Austin
Jackie van Baal
Daveda
Helen Buckle
Chris Noon
Angela Blandon
Jacky Williams
Denise Bennett
Jill Gershen
Ann Crockart

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