teleSUR Reports – No Water for the Himbas

Namibia is suffering its worst drought in 30 years. In the Originaria Region of the Himbas, it hasn’t rained in two years. The Himbas are semi-nomadic herders who live in northern Nambia and Angola. They have survived droughts for hundreds of years and manage to keep clean and perfumed with an ocre ointment and scented herbs that they prepare. They have often found water in the most adverse places by following the elephants, who know where underground water is. Now, large transnational mining companies have all the water they need to take uranium, diamonds, copper and gold out of the ground. The Himbas say that these companies could help them by drilling holes deep enough to find water, but they don’t. Instead, the long drought is killing their livestock, forcing them to move to urban areas, and threatening their very survival. teleSUR