Deputy mayor uses us as a scapegoat, farmers say

Farmers have accused the City of Cape Town of mishandling its water crisis and unfairly blaming the agriculture sector for its dwindling supplies.

The city is in the grip of a prolonged drought and has warned residents that unless they drastically reduce consumption it might be forced to turn off most taps and ration people to 25 litres a day, which they will have to obtain at designated collection points, with devastating socioeconomic consequences.

“It is very [sad] that the deputy mayor [Ian Neilson] is using agriculture as a scapegoat to cover up their [inability] to manage what they have got,” Agri Western Cape CE Carl Opperman said on Thursday. The city had dragged its feet in imposing tight water restrictions, had overshot its consumption targets and should not blame farmers for the shortage.

Neilson, the leader of the city’s drought response team, said on Wednesday that he and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille would meet Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and seek an undertaking that the city’s water allocation was guaranteed and would not be reduced to meet the needs of agriculture or of other municipalities.

“In past years, the national department has allowed agriculture to draw down in excess of the allocation they agreed to. The city wanted an undertaking from the minister that they would not exceed their allocation again this year [2018],” he said on Thursday.

Neilson said the meeting with the minister had been productive. “The three spheres of government are working together to ensure that we can maximise the water available this year. The minister and city will work together to clarify our demand management and water drawdown strategy to remain within the annual water allocation, which will provide the minister with a mechanism to ensure that the allocation is assured for the city,” he said.

Opperman said that farmers would not be allocated water at the expense of Cape Town as the needs of humans and animals were prioritised over agriculture. The Western Cape agricultural sector’s water allocation had been cut to 40% of its usual amount, while Cape Town had 55% of its usual amount, he said. “We are all fighting to keep Cape Town alive. I would expect Cape Town to fight to keep agriculture alive,” said Opperman, warning that the fate of the agricultural sector would have a direct impact on Cape Town

“The bottom line is stop making politics about this. The deputy mayor must realise if there is no agriculture we will see all our rural people coming to the city,” he said.