Kalahari San banned from using water

THE Botswana government has prohibited the Kalahari Bushmen from pumping water from a borehole in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, says the London-based human rights group Survival International.

A Bushman leader travelled to London last week to protest against the ban, Survival International said. “Botswana’s Attorney General has written to the Bushmen’s lawyers turning down their request for permission to install a pump at an existing borehole on their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR),” said Survival international’ spokesperson Miriam Ross.”The reason given was that the borehole is the property of the Botswana government,” Ross said in a statement.Botswana’s High Court ruled in December that the Bushmen (San) had the right to live on their land, and that their forceful eviction from the park in 2002 had been illegal.They now wish to organise their own water supply, at their own expense.Jumanda Gakelebone of the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari said: “The court said we could go back to our land, but now we see that the government is doing everything it can to stop us.Why else would it stop us using a borehole that nobody else is using? Without water we cannot live in the Kalahari.””Botswana’s Attorney General has written to the Bushmen’s lawyers turning down their request for permission to install a pump at an existing borehole on their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR),” said Survival international’ spokesperson Miriam Ross.”The reason given was that the borehole is the property of the Botswana government,” Ross said in a statement.Botswana’s High Court ruled in December that the Bushmen (San) had the right to live on their land, and that their forceful eviction from the park in 2002 had been illegal.They now wish to organise their own water supply, at their own expense.Jumanda Gakelebone of the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari said: “The court said we could go back to our land, but now we see that the government is doing everything it can to stop us.Why else would it stop us using a borehole that nobody else is using? Without water we cannot live in the Kalahari.”