By now, the elephants, antelopes, and zebras know the sound of the water truck, and wait patiently as their dry waterhole is replenished with what Patrick Kilonzo Mwalau calls a "very precious commodity."
Mwalau is the founder of Tsavo Volunteers, which brings water to parched areas of Tsavo, Kenya, where animals are desperate for a drink. Heavy rains aren't expected until November, and at least four times a week, Mwalau and his team rent trucks that deliver 12,000 liters of water to two different watering holes 27 miles away. Each truck costs $250, and Mwalau has started a GoFundMe to help with the costs. "We have many elephants concentrating in very few water holes, fighting to drink water, and this has made the smaller elephants lacking water," Mwalau, known as the "Elephant Guardian," wrote on the GoFundMe page. "They become very thirsty and they end up spending a lot of time and energy walking very far distances with young ones searching for water."
Donations have started to stream in, and permanent solutions are now possible. "Elephants are becoming endangered from poaching and we need to save the ones we have left by providing water for them until the drought peril is over," Mwalau said.