Enforce restrictions

RECENTLY published Level 6 water restrictions state: “Residential units using more than 10 500 litres per month will be fined or have water management devices installed on their properties.”

I am delighted that the word “will” has replaced the previously used, toothless, “may”, which was hardly a deterrent to those who refuse to do the right thing.

On behalf of the many compliant residents, who are slowly learning to live with the inconveniences that will be part of daily living until the drought is broken, I urge the council to take the punitive steps referred to in the new restrictions without delay.

The “couldn’t-be-bothered” attitude of many residents is clearly playing too big a part in hurrying Day Zero towards us all.

Second, it is my belief that further education is needed on the use of grey water to flush toilets as a critical watersaving measure. I recently was left openmouthed as a seemingly well-informed acquaintance said to me: “I always just flush because using a bucket of water doesn’t work.”

As little as a third of a small bucket of grey water, tipped forward with a measure of vigour, will always provide the required flushing-away pressure, and – crucially – will save a good few litres of precious municipal water. There should be no residential alternative to the use of grey water to flush a toilet in what are becoming desperate drought times.

Concerned water-saver SP Andrews Kirstenhof