Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Social media alive with references to Day Zero
FROM funny memes, hoaxes to tips, water-related issues have been dominant on social media.
Posts range from panic to practical as Day Zero draws closer.
A picture of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille photoshopped onto the poster of popular movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert with the words “Patricia Queen of the Desert” was one of the first to pop up on social media.
The poster of the pseudo-movie says it also stars former Democratic Alliance party leader Tony Leader. It takes a dig at the former party leader’s company Resolve Communications’ R680 000 contract to advise on the city’s water crisis communications strategy.
De Lille appears with a big smile – looking friendly.
Among the hoaxes is a fake letter which referred to Western Cape premier Helen Zille as the city’s mayor..
In the letter Zille informs locals that “running and other physical activity including sex dehydrates you and makes you want to drink water, hence we are strongly against such activities”.
The letter continued: “Tourists are discouraged from coming to Cape Town, or must carry a min of 25ltr of water for their personal use.”
Another hoax message claimed the City of Cape Town warned that “under no circumstances are we to drink water from taps unless it is boiled as the water has been declared contaminated .
“We have been told to alert our families. All water even for use for mixing of juice and for our animals must be boiled. It will apparently make us and our animals very sick,” it continued.
City officials denounced this hoax saying water from taps remains safe for drinking.
The Jumu’a Mosque of Cape Town in Gardens shared a poster about a documentary it would be screening on Sunday at 4:30pm. The film Blue Gold: World Water Wars “looks at what happens when water becomes a commodity”. AS A Capetonian, I hope we can be kinder to each other during the water crisis. And that should begin with our political leaders.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille should refrain from calling residents “callous” when the city council under her leadership has failed us during this crisis.
When I asked city officials why they did not install water tanks at least a year ago at various sites to use grey water, their response was unsatisfactory.
Xanthea Limberg, charged with running the city’s water, replied: “The cost would not justify the amount of water this would yield.”
The other night I was shocked at Helen Zille’s tweet in response to someone who said townships residents had lived with the practical hardships that will come with Day Zero “since birth”.
Zille responded: “It must be a relief that you weren’t burdened by the legacy of a colonial wiping system.”
To make matters worse, the DA appointed its party leader Mmusi Maimane to run the water crisis campaign when this crisis requires local government leadership.
This point was underscored when he handed water buckets to people who were wasting water and who can afford to buy their own buckets.
Politicians employed and paid to solve the crisis have failed us and are now using it for opportunistic politicking.
I’m one of many Capetonians preparing for the day the taps run dry. It’s tough, especially when the city’s dashboard indicates at least 60% of residents are still not decreasing their daily water consumption.
Over the past few days I’ve been to Stodels Garden Centre twice to ask about buying a water tank.
I’ve been using grey water from my shower and kitchen sink and that has been enough for flushing my toilet and watering plants.
I thought about getting the tank to store any overflow. A 250 litre one would be enough for me and costs R1 000. I would also need to buy a tap to attach to the tank.
Stodels are selling out of tanks as soon as they arrive. A salesperson told me he had sold 30 water tanks that day.
A large bin would also be suitable for storing overflow grey water that could be used for flushing the toilet.
The next step was to get bottled water for drinking. I went to three retailers in the week to buy 5-litre bottles.
Fear appeared to be setting in as people were panic buying. One customer filled his trolley with 50 litres – the amount of water we should ideally be using a day to avert Day Zero.
Quite a few customers in Checkers were filling up their trolleys with 5-litre bottles of water, likely stockpiling should Cape Town’s taps run dry.
Preparing for a life with limited access to water also means finding alternative ways to shower. I opted for a Garden Master water sprayer.
The truth is the water crisis has been an impartial leveller. We are now facing similar water challenges to those some residents in informal settlements experience – facing the possibility of living without running water in our homes. Twitter reminded me of this with tweets from township life. But because the water crisis also affects more privileged residents, there’s money to be made from various crisis-related products and there’s a lot more noise about the issue.
Suddenly it’s hip and cool to care about saving water, let alone the world. And it all comes at a price. You can now learn about water saving while buying smoothies and eating gluten-free sandwiches at inner-city markets.
The water crisis is here to stay and one hopes as citizens we can show compassion. It will be more than our political leaders have been able to do.