LACK OF A SOLUTION TO WATER CRISIS IS PUTTING LIVES OF POOR IN DANGER

THE water crisis in the City of Cape Town has put people’s lives in danger. The sanitary needs of people are threatened with the shortages of water which is leading to illnesses and disease. The water supply is running dangerously low. Although the city claims there is still a 20% supply, the last 10% is not drinkable. This means there is effectively only 10% usable water left, with the levels declining rapidly and no sign of sufficient rain.

This water crisis is a greater risk for the poor, who cannot afford to buy bottled water. The rich are already using bottled water for drinking, with the mayor (Patricia de Lille) herself having purchased huge amounts of bottled water.

The city is not putting in place any substantial measures to address the problem in the short and medium to long term. Instead the Mayco member that the mayor has put in charge of the water supply is taking advice from JP Smith. The JP Smith way of doing things is by press statement, which does nothing to actually fix the problem, but sets about creating plausible deniability.

The first thing that is being done is to deny the crisis exists despite the empty dams. Secondly, Smith is telling them to deny it is their responsibility to supply water to the people of Cape Town. Thirdly, to make some blanket statement about how it is the people’s responsibility and they must solve it.

The council’s only action is to set arbitrary targets for water use and then blame the people of Cape Town equally for not meeting the targets.

Smith uses this same strategy for the crime situation on the Cape Flats, which sees more people dying every day on his watch.

It is clear that the rich are the ones that are using the most water as they fill their pools and water their gardens. Paying a bit more for water does not affect them because they are super rich, while the workers are super poor.

These are the voters of the DA so they will not be challenged to change their opulent lifestyles.

It is for these reasons Cosatu has filed a Section 77 at Nedlac that forces the council to negotiate with the poor in the city. We will bring together experts to develop a plan to solve the water crisis.

Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu Western Cape secretary