Selfish wastage by a few will affect many
WE ARE, effectively, a home with six adults and one child. In addition we have a very productive fruit, vegetable and flower garden on our plot in Milnerton that has had favourable media attention in the past.
Even so, does our monthly water consumption come anywhere close to the 702 000 litres used by someone in Haywood Road, Crawford, the 655 000 litres used by someone in Manenberg Avenue, Manenberg, the 557 000 litres used by someone in Boundary Road, Lansdowne, the 554 000 litres by someone in Upper Hillwood Road, Bishopscourt and the 500 000 litres by that person’s neighbour in Norwich Drive, Bishopscourt?
We are using mere drops where they are using water by the hugest of barrels. Our family’s usage, according to the latest statement, was 10 000 litres in spite of all the laundry, washing, cooking and watering that took place.
Greywater, supplemented by water from a well point, allows for our use of potable water to be modest because we are sincerely committed to Ubuntu and acutely conscious of our social responsibility in this time of rapidly developing crisis.
The 702 000 litres used by the family in Haywood Road, Crawford, would last my family all of seven biblical years and perhaps more if some good rains had to fall in between and drench the soil and fill my tank.
On the face of it, the excessive drainage of a rapidly diminishing and essential resource by 20 000 Cape Town residents is reckless in the extreme, grossly disproportionate and mindlessly inconsiderate. The alleged transgressors listed by the city will soon have their day in court and at that point the word “criminal” could very well attach to the moral and social condemnation heaped on them for now.
Those who are scornfully inconsiderate… will force the city to take a variety of actions that will affect all of us in spite of all the water-saving measures we have implemented.
Meanwhile, the fines that will accumulate should go towards a desalination plant. Scientists are predicting that the western part of the country will experience drier weather for 50 years to come. Sooner, rather than later, we will have to embark on desalination of sea water.
Countries all over the world are experiencing the frightening impact of climate change. We are seeing for ourselves that droughts are more severe than in the past and that, when it rains, the rivers are alarmingly flooded. That is what is happening to the north of us as the Vaal Dam has filled to capacity in a few weeks.
The mayor is doing her bit, as is the media. The clergy and all other social agencies must make water conservation an article of faith as well as a matter of essential civic commitment.