Wake up, Cape Town!

After a month away I returned to find Cape Town seemingly unprepared for a humanitarian crisis that is perhaps six to eight weeks away.

It’s a reality that the city will run out of water. If radical changes are not made, perhaps in just a few weeks there will be the resultant disease, economic meltdown and, quite possibly, the loss of lives.

If people (particularly the poor or old) die this could dwarf Marikana and Esidemeni as an example of how things should not be done. If people have not cut their water use — either by request, fines or increased tariffs — should their water not be cut off, because it’s the poor and infirm who might pay with their lives for this selfishness and arrogance?

Also, why are the authorities not encouraging and subsidising the harvesting of water off roofs so that the coming winter rains are not largely lost?

The 200 collection points need to be set up as a matter of urgency for trial runs.

Many rural South Africans live on 10 to 15 litres of water a day and we in the city will have to learn to survive, at least for this summer, on much less than the 50 litres of the present restrictions.

There seems to be no credible plan for next summer and for mediumand long-term solutions.

And why are our leaders pussyfooting around this topic, not even being prepared even now to fully advise on the certainty of this crisis?