South Africans, Maps Maponyane and SA’s ‘black mermaid’ have an important message for you

To drive home the importance of water conservation, Maponyane travelled to Iceland in an attempt to find water untouched by man while Ndhlovu completed a gruelling free dive to clear Cape Town's ocean floor of plastic

16 August 2022 - 08:37
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South African TV personality and entrepreneur Maps Maponyane and free-diving instructor Zandile Ndhlovu.
South African TV personality and entrepreneur Maps Maponyane and free-diving instructor Zandile Ndhlovu. 
Image: Supplied

SA TV personality and entrepreneur Maps Maponyane and SA’s first black female free-diving instructor Zandile Ndhlovu have joined forces to promote a very important cause: water conservation in SA.

“We are fast approaching a hole that will be so deep we will not be able to get out of,” Maponyane says. “The thought of living in a SA where water-shedding becomes common practice, when access is already limited for so many, is terrifying. We all need to shout about this issue as loud as possible.”

Among the challenges contributing to this bleak picture that Maponyane talks about are a poor state of our water infrastructure, mismanagement of waste systems and treatment plants, unequal distribution and access to water and severe droughts in SA brought about by climate change.

The thought of living in a SA where water-shedding becomes common practice is terrifying
TV personality and entrepreneur Maps Maponyane

Ndhlovu — who is also known as SA’s Black Mermaid — lives in Cape Town and has first-hand experience of water scarcity after the city nearly ran out of water in 2018. “If in the future we [are] going to be facing water scarcity what can we do to ensure a better tomorrow for the generations to come?” she asks.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), SA will be approaching water scarcity as early as 2025 and it is expected that water demand will exceed supply by 17% by 2030.

To further their message of conserving water, both Maponyane and Ndhlovu joined the third addition of the Glenfiddich Challengers Club, a movement of change-makers who are passionate about SA’s potential and who are connecting and collaborating to facilitate solutions to some of SA’s most pressing challenges.

As part of this campaign, Maponyane and Ndhlovu each undertook a journey to champion their cause of working towards a SA with cleaner drinking and ocean water. Maponyane travelled to Iceland in search of water untouched by man and free of microplastics and Ndhlovu completed a free deep dive in Cape Town in an attempt to clear the ocean floor of plastic.

“The trip to Iceland was both an incredible and memorable,” Maponyane says. “I was left gasping at its sheer natural beauty and its unapologetically low temperatures.”

WATCH | Maps Maponyane's challenge to find water untouched by man

He describes a dramatic landscape with snow as thick as 15 metres in the mountains and volcanoes with geothermal rock activity which forms hot springs. “It’s called the ‘land of fire and ice’ for a reason,” he says. “It was certainly challenging but it was also quite simply beautiful and eye-opening, as it served as a reminder of the way things ought to be.”

For her part, Ndhlovu also talks about the challenges she endured. “It was hard, there’s no better way of saying it. The water is cold, you’re diving hours and hours. It was intense but it was so worth it,” she says.

The pair’s challenges culminated in the auction of 50 rare bottles of Glenfiddich last month, with the proceeds going toward creating a sustainable water project in SA endorsed by the WWF.

WATCH | Zandile Ndhlovu's challenge to clean the coean floor

The bottle casings were made from the recycled plastic Ndhlovu cleared from the ocean floor and contained a small bottle of the glacier water Maponyane collected in Iceland.

The reality may seem bleak but both Maponyane and Ndhlovu remain hopeful.

“I definitely think that the missions that Maps and I went on were really incredible journeys that speak of not living for just ourselves but living for the collective and when we go back to the idea of the auction it says we can be together in creating a collective change,” Ndhlovu says.

Maponyane’s call to South Africans is to act now. “The current state of affairs is disgraceful, and we'll have a heavy price to pay if we just sit and watch with our hands behind our back. Let's take collective action, because water is life and our access is a dignified human right.”

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