Crowdfunding brings water to Myanmar’s deer

Lakes and ponds — a lifeline for the deer, wild boar, jackals and peacocks — all dried up this summer

Eld’s deer roaming in the Shwe Settaw nature reserve in Magway region of Myanmar.

A herd of endangered deer wait under the shade of one of the sparse trees in this parched central Myanmar landscape, watching as rangers dispatch drinking water — a life-saving resource funded by wellwishers.

Shwe Settaw nature reserve in Magway Division is home to the endemic species of Eld’s or golden deer. But their habitat lies in the country’s central dry zone, a low-lying plain astride the Irrawaddy River where water shortages are rife in the hot season. This year temperatures have soared to a record 47 degrees centigrade.

The sanctuary’s 20-odd lakes and ponds — a lifeline for the deer, wild boar, jackals, peacocks and other creatures — have all dried up. In one lake bed, a water depth-measuring rod stands marooned in the middle of a mosaic of cracked earth.

People vs. nature

Many of the park’s estimated 1,000 deer started venturing dangerously close to villages outside the reserve, putting themselves at risk of poaching, rangers say.

Then, the park’s rangers started pooling their money to travel to a nearby river to collect water and re-fill a couple of the scorched craters. But when it became unsustainable, they turned to Facebook for help.

Donations poured in from as far away as Yangon, Mandalay and Shan state in the northeast.

“Luckily, it really captured people’s interest,” ranger Thein Lwin said, adding that they had received over 1 million kyat ($650).

The sum is enough to pay for the petrol and fees needed to hire water-carrying tankers that take six daily trips to a small river some 15 km away. Each tanker holds around 4,500 litres of water.