One of the largest parks in Africa inside the world’s largest transfrontier conservation area is Hwange National Park (HNP), Zimbabwe. HNP is semi-arid where in the dry season animals depend completely on artificial waterholes. Hot temperatures and climate change accentuate how crucial water becomes for wildlife. HNP is home to several endangered species.

The current water management system in HNP is a non-thought reaction to the need to supply water, especially for elephants due to tourism pressure. Managing waterholes without proper planning can have implications on wildlife, tourism and local socio-economic development. Surface-water availability drives the distribution and abundance of herbivores (especially elephants), and in turn: carnivores’ aggregation, plus distribution grazing/browsing pressure (which affects vegetation structure). Hence, water distribution can indirectly affect the conservation of endangered species, such as African wild dogs. Moreover, elephant densities tend to increase with waterhole density. Changes in water provision practices or severe droughts could provoke an elephant die-off, which could result in poor public relations. Currently, there is no national water management plan for artificial water provision in Zimbabwe. A scientific water management legal plan is a high-priority need.