Nearly all of the water in Hwange is provided via borehole pumps at various sites around the park. Within the park itself these are mainly maintained by the National Parks or the concession holders (Notably The Hide). This good work is largely supported by charitable donations to organisations such as Friends of Hwange.
Amongst the concession holders is Wilderness Safaris, they maintain 12 boreholes all of which are within their concession area,they contribute nothing to the park itself. At the now closed concession of Giraffe Springs they have failed to maintain the borehole pump and the animals in the area now rely on the insufficient supply of a small windmill.

ECO FRIENDLY INDEED.

As far as I know WS are not the concession owners, they only have management contracts for the camps. Not sure if they still are responsible for places that have been closed.

Also these artifical waterholes are a two-sided sword - they are also responsible for the overpopulation of elephants in certain areas, with all the resulting destruction of landscape.

If you check the Wilderness website you will find that Wilderness own both Makalolo concessions in partnership.

By only pumping in their own concession the destruction is largely retained there, but this does nothing to help the park as a whole nor the animals that reside there. Without artificial water sources Hwange and it's residents would cease to exist, hardly double edged.

So is there really any difference between the operators? They all maintain the waterholes within their used game drive areas - WS in Makalolo and Linkwasha, ABC in Somalisa, and The Hide (who doesn't own a concession) around Kennedy 1/2.

The pumps maintained by the Hide and friends of Hwange range up to 187 km from the Hide, this is hardly looking after pumps in your own area.

I heard about the work of the Trust and I saw their windmill at Shumba, but never associated this with The Hide. Maybe you could tell more about the relationship between the Trust and The Hide, and which waterholes are actually maintained by The Hide (and not by the Trust).

Indeed, Wilderness does still have the Giraffe Springs concession, though being the eco-friendly company they are not pumping. They seem to be mothballing it until better times.....

Much similar to CC Africa and Matetsi Safari lodge. IT was closed during the peak of the troubles and then any restoration was not economically viable.

Talking of Wilderness and being eco-friendly, it still makes me chuckle when they claim all their concessions are free of hunting. Right next to Seba and Abu camp is one of the most famous hunting camps in Botswana, Selbys, in the same concession. Abu is a huge concession, so is it in Wilderness policy to pay for a concession with a hunting operator?

Maybe one reason that they don't list EBS as owners on the camp pages.