Growing water crisis

THERE are plans afoot to establish a large and high population density “development” to the east of the Melkbosstrand police station and the West Coast road.

The Western Cape is already straining, if not bursting, at the seams with too many people.

The city was never designed to carry the millions of people seeking sanctuary in a functional environment away from dysfunctional areas in the rest of south and southern Africa.

So be it, and let us be tolerant, yet there is a major problem now and it seems unlikely to be solved soon – the name of the problem is water.

Cape Town simply cannot afford to have more high-density developments before the so-far seriously neglected water problems have been addressed; the millions of people, legal and illegal here, already are in danger of going dirty, which is fine, but thirsty or dying of thirst as well. How are the city managers going to get an increased and increasing supply of water for the growing number of extra people if they cannot even guarantee a supply, despite the numerous warnings from experts, for the 4 million people already in dire straits and increasing daily?

In terms of the “bigger picture” the water crisis is simply another symptom of the global population, which is increasing by 1 million people every four days, after taking deaths into consideration. It represents a population as large as that of the Cape Metropole every four days.

It may make some sense to develop a new high-density development where there is a new water source, perhaps icebergs near Koeberg to help melt them? Ben Smit Melkbosstrand