Whilst elephants have lived in this desert area of Namibia for many hundreds of years, they became all but extinct during the years following WWII. Thanks to the World War and in-fighting between neighbouring countries, the elephants were displaced from the region for over 30 years. During this period, which was a generation in human population terms, people forgot how to live with elephants. Whilst in the past they lived alongside each other, this process was unlearned over their 30 years of absence. When the elephants returned to the area, many of the locals did not want them back.Subsistence farmers fear the elephants for the damage that they can wreak on their water supplies. Whilst this has always been a problem, previously it was handled differently.
Farmers would be happy for the elephants to share their water supplies and would even leave a trough next to their water system for the elephants to drink from. Now though, farmers have not needed to do this, and so do not leave troughs of water. The elephants can smell the water sources and will try to access these, not knowing it is impossible as the underwater rivers are many hundreds of metres below ground. If the troughs are left out, the elephants drink and move on. When they become frustrated because they can smell water but not access it, they destroy the pipes in their efforts to get to the water.
The protective walls are built to make the farmers feel more protected, but also to encourage them to leave out a water source for the elephants in this way. If the farmers no longer feel threatened by the roaming desert elephants, they will no longer call upon the government to allow them to be hunted. As these elephants are such a rare species, it is essential that locals can live alongside them.