LET’S REMAIN WATER-WISE

IT WASN’T too long ago when Cape Town residents were concerned about Day Zero. The prospect of a major city running out of water was enough to get people to change their behaviour and cut their consumption.

The water crisis was highly politicised and it quickly became easy, once restrictions were lifted and Dan Plato was named new mayor, to believe the city was in no real danger of running out of water at all.

Where once neighbours would remind each other to save water, we again find Capetonians watering their gardens and hosing down paved surfaces with impunity.

Why is it that we need to be reminded that we live in a waterscarce country despite the fact that we are surrounded by water?

The warnings about Day Zero have become a memory, recalled only now and again when we see a sign on the mirror of a restaurant or hotel restroom. And yet, just five hours on the N1 in Beaufort West, they’re fast running dry.

In the town of Zoar, the water is only turned on intermittently. Imagine going to the bathroom and needing to wash your hands only to find that when you turn on the tap, nothing comes out.

The town of Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, has been without water for six days.

As you read this, thousands of tons of bottled water are being freighted in by truck from Cape Town and Joburg. How is it possible for us to have cities and towns that can run out of water when Cape Town only just recently came out of a water crisis? Have we learnt nothing?

Instead of enjoying our freedom from Level 6b water restrictions, we should remain cognisant of our limited water supply and precarious situation of living on the edge of crisis, where at any moment, we could again find ourselves wihout water.

Continue saving water, because every drop still counts.