Cape Town's dam levels have dropped to 42.5%, which is very worrying.
The city’s mayco member for water services Xanthea Limberg said restrictions
will be strengthened.
Water restrictions, now at level 3, are almost exclusively concerned with
domestic recreational use – gardens, around the house, pools and cars,
etc. In other words, to the city's thinking,
by not following restrictions ordinary households are solely responsible for
dam levels dipping from 51.2% to 42.5% in the past month (what about
evaporation?) and increased consumption from 859 to 890 million litres a
week.
This is irrational and probably false. How can they say with 100% certainty residents
are responsible?
If we assume a slight majority of households – those who had previously
watered their gardens, hosed their cars, etc – are obeying restrictions by
using less city water than before, then according to the city, a minority has doubled
their consumption, ie, inadvertently and opportunistically they’re making up
for responsible citizens’ abstention thereby causing weekly overall consumption
to rise 31 million litres.
This is preposterous and can’t be true. No, I think they have a convenient whipping
boy – households.
We reduced our consumption about 30% compared to the same
period last year, and that includes judiciously watering our large garden and
using grey water thereon. In-house
consumption has remained about the same, but we’re aware we must conserve. My point is if the majority of households are
doing this, why is water consumption not dropping?
It must be other consumers
– commerce, retail, hospitality, factories, workshops and government. Our daily average consumption is 0.852kl for
a big household and garden, which I said has been drastically reduced.
But what is the consumption of shopping malls? What is the consumption of hotels where
tourists, just back from a day at the beach, up Table Mountain, etc, have long
showers before going to dinner, then return for another long shower before bed,
unaware or unconcerned about the dams?
Has government, a huge user of municipal resources (and notoriously
slow payer) cut back? What about
factories? How much water, if any, has
the civic centre - Limberg, Kleinschmidt and colleagues - conserved over the past weeks and months?
Have they all “got the memo”?
Now the city wants to implement stricter regulations on you
and I for watering out little patch of residential heaven, but exempts old age
homes, nurseries, sports fields and the very large users above.
A couple of weeks ago at midday, with the sun blazing,
Kenilworth Racecourse’s sprinklers were going full blast. Did the city check if they have bore holes? Surely all golf courses don’t have bore holes
or use grey/brown water.
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