Bushmen to get water after legal fight

Gaborone - Bushmen living in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve will receive a crucial new water supply next month after winning a lengthy court battle, the diamond firm mining the area said on Wednesday.

Gem Diamonds Company, which was last year given rights to mine in the reserve, said it will begin drilling four boreholes in July for Bushmen who have lived for years without regular sources of water.

"We have successfully established a partnership with the non-profit organization VOX United, to drill four boreholes in the CKGR to provide the residents with water," said Gem chief executive Clifford Elphick.

"Gem Diamonds will provide technical and financial assistance. The borehole drilling programme follows discussions and consultations with the local communities," he added.

Botswana's highest court ruled in January in favour of the Bushmen who had fought for years for the right to re-open a crucial water well that supplied their village.

In 2002, the Botswana government evicted the Bushmen and closed a borehole which was their only source of water, in the arid Kalahari.

A court ruled in 2006 that the Bushmen have the right to stay in their ancestral land, and hundreds returned only to battle for survival with limited sources of water.

Government had argued that it is not required to provide water to people living in the game reserve, only to people living in formal settlements.

The Bushmen are southern Africa's first inhabitants, the majority poor and marginalised and excluded from government welfare services.

Some 100 000 of them remain in region, spread across Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.