Parts of the earth are wild, and parts will never be the same again. Big Life operates in the middle, a place where wildlife and humans live together, both trying to survive. The dry seasons are when the relationship becomes most strained. Stress levels rise and tempers fray, water becomes liquid gold.

As a Maasai herdsman, you spend much of your income pumping water for your cattle. Imagine then bringing your thirsty herd to a borehole watering point and finding it empty. Or worse still, the pipes and tanks destroyed by elephant. What do you do? Get angry, and that anger often leads to actions that could end up with an elephant with a spear in it.

Now imagine you are an elephant, a thirsty one with a thirsty family. You arrive at the watering point and find it empty. What then? Your sense of smell leads you to a tank, and the only way in is to pull up the pipes or break the tank. 

There is a simple solution. In this case everyone can be happy by making separate water points available for elephants away from the cattle troughs. But this involves building a water point, plumbing it and supplying diesel to run the pumps.

We have six water points that create conflict between cattlemen and elephant. To build a dedicated water point and plumb it requires about $2,000, then about $10 per day to buy diesel to run the pumps.

The rains have failed in many areas this year and the deadly conflicts are inevitable. Can you help us by either building a water point ($2000) or donating to run the pumps for a month ($300)?

Please go to www.biglife.org/donations

Thank You, Richard Bonham