Recently, while visiting Mannyetha Primary school, for World Water Monitoring Day, in a dry, rural area of Sekhukhune District in South Africa, the teachers debated amongst themselves whether to go to a small sacred lake within walking distance of the school. Some teachers were concerned about a snake that lurked at noon and could haunt the unlucky person to have seen it. Even white people were not exempt from the snake's power. In the sixties some Afrikaans contractors came to build an agricultural canal; one night a huge storm came and blew away their tents and all the work they had done. They gave up and left.
The Sacred Lake
With only half an hour to spare to noon we reached the sacred lake flanked by the largest trees I have seen in the area. A donkey cart pulling barrels of water lumbered past us back towards the village. The lake was green, probably from eutrophication from the numerous cow pats that lay on its sandy banks. To my surprise a small crocodile swam in the water and the teachers assured me that there were a lot more around.
Four of the teachers collected water and drank it straight away. They told me it was healthy and would cleanse the body as it was natural water. I explained that times are changing especially as the area has no proper sewage management and Sekhukhune villagers are often sick with cholera. One teacher filled a 2 litre bottle to take home and said she would boil it before drinking. The bravest learners collected water samples; we posed for photos and away we went with handfuls of litter that we had collected.
The Olifants River
The Olifants river, winding its way laboriously towards Kruger Park, was but 300 metres away. The group was visibly more relaxed at the river and everyone ended up splashing in the cool water. Although we did not see any aquatic insects, the water tests for the lake and the river were good – high dissolved oxygen, neutral pH and low turbidity.
Fear of Nature
Back at school one of the teachers confided that she saw ripples spreading from the centre of the lake outwards. The snake knew we was there, and wanted us to enter the lake. Two hundred kilometres away in the hills of Haenertsburg another snake is said to haunt a spring of water and also arrives every noon. Further north, in the Zoutpansberg, the white crocodile of Lake Fundudzi required sacrifices of young maidens to keep it in check.
One cannot help but wonder how these characters developed and why they are so widespread. Was it some age old way of keeping people away from special places and therefore keeping the water clean and the trees unfelled? Can environmental educators replace age old fear-driven conservation with knowledge-driven conservation?
It saddens me that children living next to natural areas are prevented from exploring them and threatened with ticks, snakes and criminals. In situ conservation of species around communal areas can only be possible if safe and frequent opportunities are created for children to explore and cherish nature. At least in the case of Mannyetha Primary, the sacred water near the school has now been seen by many children for the first time in their lives. This outing will become an annual event on the school calendar to monitor water and remove any litter. It is advances like these that make the WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools programme worthwhile.
Cathy Dzerefos - Cathy Dzerefos has an M.Sc. (Ecology) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
