Cape water crisis long in the making

For a quality paper I would expect a Mail & Guardian news analysis to know how a situation arose. Sipho Kings did not do well in “The Cape will be dry by August” (June 2 to 8, 2017), missing two salient points.

First, the department of water affairs and forestry failed to carry out the environmental management plan in 1996. The plans for a new dam were going ahead until the government scrapped the Skuifraam Dam (Berg River Dam) and built houses without the necessary infrastructure. This is one of the many mistakes made by the ANC appointees who thought they knew better than the experts. I have the information in hard copy.

The study, Western Cape Analysis, showed Cape Town would run out of water by 1998. The government was aware of this but ignored the findings. The Skuifraam Dam was projected to supply water for only 640 000 people. The minister, Kader Asmal, turned the scheme down. The director of planning was ignored. Judging by the pointless comment by Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, at this late stage, not much has changed.

Second, Kings takes no account of the influx of people into Cape Town. The latest figure is an increase of 10% in two years — and that’s the number known. The population increase has shown up the lack of planning by the national government, exacerbated by the reported minimal budgets allocated to the Democratic Alliance-run province. The urban myth and observations of communal taps running constantly do not help.

With the increase in houses and flush toilets in the Cape Town area there is an exponential increase in the use of water. The policing of use is an ever-increasing burden on the metropolitan authorities. It is an impossible task where many public water outlets are not metered.

Also, the weather pattern in recent years has produced fewer lowpressure systems bearing rain. For some years these depressions have been pushed further south. But, as far back as the 1980s, these weather systems were heading southeast as they arrived on the Western Cape coast. So it’s not news. No one took any notice of those who study such things.