The Louis Trichardt Rotary Club and First National Bank (FNB) Makhado, jointly handed over a borehole to Tshikhwani Primary School last Friday during an event held at the school premises.

The school is situated in the deep rural village of Ha-Rathidili in the Sinthumule area under the Makhado Municipality. Taps at the school and the village are always dry, following the municipality’s inability to supply villagers constantly with clean water.

The school has 675 learners with only 20 teachers, including the principal, Mr Morris Chauke. Most of the classrooms at the school, according to Chauke, need to be demolished as they are old and have developed scary cracks.

"We are talking about the classrooms that leak when it rains. There are insects such as ants and we are afraid to use insecticide because of the safety of the children. Window glasses are always getting shattered shortly after we replace them because the windows are no longer of a good standard," claimed Chauke.

Chauke said that he viewed the handing over of the borehole as crucial to his school. "We have a feeding scheme at the school and the shortage of water was making things difficult. The health of our learners was at risk, because every time when they came from the toilets, they were not washing their hands. Now we have the borehole, we are going to start a vegetable garden. We are very thankful to our sponsors who realised that without water there is no life," he said.

Chauke described the borehole project as a real public/private partnership. Contributors to the borehole project at Tshikhwani include the Louis Trichardt Rotary Club, Pennels Tanks and FNB Makhado.

The president of the Louis Trichardt Rotary Club, Mr Dennis Gilbert, said that they had assisted the school with the pump system of the borehole and the installation thereof. "After the school management approached us to complete the project by putting in the pump system, we agreed and began raising funds that we donated towards the project.

"We are always available to needy people and communities and we are urging other business people to take the giant step of ploughing back into the communities to bring development and real changes in our area," he said. Gilbert said the installation of the pump system of the borehole cost them about R7 000.