Maimane’s new water crisis team doesn’t inspire confidence
Dear Mmusi Maimane WHILE I fully agree with you that the City has not responded to the drought crisis in any acceptable manner, I don’t think your “taking political control of managing the situation” will do anything different from what the City has done so far.
You say you have created a new team to deal with the crisis, one you say is best suited for the job.
Your plan is to use less water and hold the national government to account! That is pure genius.
Also, your idea to bring 120 megalitres online in May this year will do one hell of a lot to avert the running out of water in April.
By May most restaurants and other water-dependent industries in the Western Cape will be out of business.
Tens of thousands of people will be out of jobs.
You and the City’s water managers are blissfully ignorant of the catastrophic consequences, both social and economic, your blatant ignorance of the looming disaster will bring.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think you know the first thing about water, its generation, storage and how to ascertain a continuous supply of it to the people who depend on it.
One can only hope that there will be people on your new team who know more than talking their way out of accepting responsibility for what is to come, if we really have to go out and queue in a mile-long line to collect water. It will be a full-day’s job and will never work.
I believe talks were held with a fleet of desalination ships to supply the City with sufficient water until the rains come. These talks have been abandoned. Why?
Why could the City not have built a pipeline to bring in water from other provinces? Why did the City not arrange (months ago) to start a 24/7 water tanker convey (road and rail) to fill up the dams? Why, why, why? The answer is simple. You have too many people who do their own thing. There is no coordinated leadership.
One in your so-called administration does not know what the other one does.
To give you an example: I reported a water leak at my domestic water meter on the City’s side of the meter.
It took your geniuses more than a year to attend to the leak.
It is so very obvious that the City of Cape Town is incapable of looking after the needs of its people. Axel Zoelzer Hout Bay