The Rössing Foundation is working with the Omatjete community to reduce human-wildlife conflict, which has had a negative impact on livelihoods in this small village.
Elephants have been the main source of human-wildlife conflict in this area. To minimise such conflict, the Rössing Foundation is building protection walls around community water points while making available separate water points for the animals.
These interventions were initiated from broad-based consultations with the affected communities, after elephants damaged water points that serves the rural villages.
Due to the devastating droughts in the country, elephants and humans are often competing for the same resources such as water from water points 
Community members building a protection wall for a 10,000 litre water storage tank.
Rössing Foundation’s Chief Enterprise Officer Lysias Uusiku explained that the idea behind building separate drinking water points is to enable the elephants to have access to water before they reach the villages.
“The project is therefore a response to the communities’ outcry and tension between the people and elephants,” he said.
“The project is implemented in phases and the plan is to construct five protection walls around the community water points while two new water points are created exclusively for elephants.”
He stated that the construction of walls to protect community water points also created temporary jobs for the local people, especially the unemployed youth which contributes towards the economic wellbeing of the beneficiaries.
Apart from building protection walls and separate elephant water points, the borehole for the Otjiperongo junior secondary school was also rehabilitated through this project.
The project is funded by the Game Product Trust Fund of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Visit the Rössing Foundation website on www.rossingfoundation.com
