Water-saving methods not being taken seriously by many

I ATTENDED the concert in De Waal Park on Sunday, which was very good and the act put up a real performance.

Many thanks to the city and all the sponsors involved for allowing regular Capetonians to actively participate in these events.

My main concern, however, is the water fountain which was spraying up to 20m.

As it was quite windy, and very hot, I am sure many litres of water evaporated and many other litres were wasted by just dropping metres away from the fountain, on to tarred and gravel paths.

My wife and I have not had a bath in months, as we now even shower together, which is not always very comfortable.

We use our daughter’s 5-7 litres of bath water to water our vegetables, herbs, loquat tree, our grape vines and other “non-essential” plant life, with water from washing our dishes, our washing machine and ice when we defrost our freezers.

We have opted not to flush a number 1 if you have gone first and have even placed a brick in our cistern to lower our consumption.

We have not watered our lawn in months and are hoping it does not develop thorns to prevent our two-yearold daughter from playing there.

We are not doing all this because it will benefit us financially. We are renting and our water bill is not included in our rent.

We, like many South Africans, are doing this because there is a shortage and we can’t afford not to have water available. So we again, with many other South Africans, are sacrificing hugely-until we have more rain.

We do this rather than use as much water as we can and instead of there only being more than 100 days left, there will now only be 30 days left.

I am not even concerned about having my car washed, even though my clothing is dirty at times, but I and my family abide.

Is it again where the “white” privileged benefit while the less privileged like us who live on the Cape Flats and others like us have to suffer.

This is just one area we have noticed. How many other areas aren’t behaving the same, with their lush lawns and beautiful, colourful flower beds.

Yet we are not even sure if this grey water we are using on food we are consuming is healthy for us. Disgusting city management. We don’t need the Company’s Garden watered. We don’t need Parliament’s gardens watered.We don’t need any of that, except water for human consumption.

So if you stop watering parks, gardens and school grounds we will increase our potable water from more than 100 days to maybe 400 days.