More than 130 hippos at Munambeza Pond near Lake Lyambezi in the Zambezi Region are stranded in the muddy water owing to the persistent drought.

Munambeza is the third of the ponds where hippos are stranded along the Chobe River bordering with Botswana.

Lungala and Sinde are other ponds where hippos are stranded.

However, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism has already drilled boreholes in those areas to pump water to sustain the hippos until the next rainy season.

The Ministry's Spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda, told nbc News at Munambeza that they are doing their best to ensure that the stranded hippos survive.

"So it is important to say that what we are currently observing is a slightly better situation compared to Lungala, where we initially intervened. Hippos here are of course in a predicament, but it seems that this situation is salvageable; we can assist the hippos. And of course, we have already started; as we speak, the boreholes have been drilled by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism so that we can pump water into the pond."

So far, five hippos have died in the same pond since last Friday.

However, Muyunda said Namibia should regard itself as lucky that since the beginning of the drought only five mortalities have been recorded.

"As we move forward with the mortalities here, it is very important to caution residents of these areas to desist from eating the meat until we have established the exact cause of the mortalities. What we are suspecting here is a possibility of anthrax, as you know, as water becomes scarce and dries out, the possibility of anthrax is actually very high. Apart from that, if you look around this area, there is very little vegetation for these hippos to graze, so it is also suspected that one of the causes that may have led to the mortality is starvation. This is what we are suspecting, but in the meantime, we caution that people must not eat the meat."

Drilling of a borehole at Munambeza has already come to a water level of 45 meters, but the depth was expected to increase to fifty meters by the end of Tuesday.

Muyunda cautions those living within wildlife areas and sharing water with animals not to provoke them.