New water restriction tariffs hit Cape Town: what you need to know

[spiff]

Finally a use for that useless stadium

 

[noxibox]

Self preservation?

So you then don't mind if those with the resources cause a water shortage by drawing too much from the dams?

However there is no reason to believe bottled water would not continue to be available without hoarding weeks or months worth. Of course hoarding itself is leading to a temporary shortage, which wouldn't exist otherwise, and if those hoarding continued to accumulate stockpiles they could create a longer shortage even though in reality there'd be enough for everyone to have sufficient drinking water without the hoarding. And if someone is contributing to a shortage by hoarding for their own use to the detriment of many others, then they'd be no different to anyone who used whatever amount of water suited them from the municipal supply. They are after all just looking out for themselves.

 

[noxibox]

Nothing wrong with prepping for the end of the world.

Well this isn't remotely that.

 

[daveza]

I'm hoarding nothing and not buying bottled water.

If I didn't live in a flat, nor would I buy a tank and fill it with tap water.

Folk going completely taatie at the moment.

 

[f2wohf]

Project managers in the City of Cape Town tasked with coming up with solutions about the drought spent lots of time talking about furniture they wanted instead of water projects, a submission by Mayor Patricia de Lille has revealed.

"At some of the very first meetings it was astounding to hear feedback from project managers who, when asked for updates on the plans to get additional water, instead spent a great deal of time talking about furniture for the 'war room' for the water resilience team," she said.

"Instead of receiving substantial feedback on the actual delivery of water and commencement of projects, senior project managers spoke about desks and other office furniture needed for the war room and the costs to set it up."

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/N...-on-cape-towns-derailed-drought-plan-20180130

 

[Stefanmuller]

Obviously my views will seem closed mined to people whom I consider have a close minded view created mostly on what they are fed through media, it is something I accept.

My question to people like that, who buy into this whole mass hysteria, is have you really given it some thought? All aspects of the situation.

Firstly, to how many of the big dams have you been? What about smaller ones on private properties? How many of the rivers have you seen that has run dry? Do you honestly believe we will get no rain? How do you see sanitation in areas with no water? How long do you think people will be able to live in those areas? I'm not even going to bring up the water collection points myth, because if you take some time to think about all the logistics around it you will realise it is impossible.

It's easy to accept what you are being told and just make peace with it. It's takes a bit more time and effort to realise what will actually happen if what you accept and made peace with does happen.



Precisely - the demand. If you curb that then you don't need huge amounts of rain over a long period of time. Which is exactly what they are doing, best way to do that is to tell people when you will cut their supply.

In all honesty I hope we do get lots of rain, and people should save best they can. But you need to be realistic.

I am inclined to also agree with your interpretation of the situation. Although I think a Day Zero scenario actually happening is very slim, afterall it has never ever happened before in the history of the modern world to a city the size of CT, the possibility is still there. That needs to be avoided because it will be disasterous. The authorities need to have some form of clear action plan to fight this, which at the moment is to focus on limiting usage and driving it by driving home a worst case scenario to the population. There is no other short term option.

However, I am doing the most I can, using as little water as possible and hoping for the best. Dont want to be blamed for not doing my part. I expect my water usage to be less than half of what it used to be next month. Hopefully most people do this and the problem will be mitigated enough till the rains come.

 

[Azg]

Moody's raises red flags over Cape Town water crisis

https://www.fin24.com/Economy/moodys-raises-red-flags-over-cape-town-water-crisis-20180129?

I think day Zero would affect not just Cape Town's credit and investment ratings, but possibly the whole country's.

 

[Bunta]

Murphy: whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

Not necessarily every time, but once or twice during our lifetime the shît will really hit the fan.
It is understandable that you don't seem to have the same level of panic than city people. You get out enough and know the countryside and the natural water sources. This increases your chances greatly should the taps run dry.

People that stay in the city don't have this. I mean some people are scared of drinking rain water because the roof it fell on might of had some dust on it. If you only know tap water this is a very real crisis and People will panic even more the closer we get.

I live close to the CBD and i'm far from panicking.
People in the City have options and access to Springs, remember, cape town is flanked by Signal Hill, Lions Head, Table Mountain and Devils Peak, all with springs.

 

[daveza]

The authorities need to have some form of clear action plan to fight this

Unless they can make it rain they have very few options.

 

[theratman]

Well even if by some miracle we avoid Day Zero, it's not like I will NOT use the 5L bottles. Unlike say a generator, I can still use the 5L bottles even if the taps don't run dry.

I agree,I have loads of empty 5l bottles because I only drink water that I buy or refill in them, as my tap water tastes kark. I likely have more than most and while I never bought them for the purpose of hoarding they'll be handy come day zero or not.

 

[Rouxenator]

Unless they can make it rain they have very few options.

Correct, their only option is to limit use, and they are doing that very well with the day zero scenario and telling folks they are are still above the usage threshold.

What you can take home from that simple, keep calm and save water.

 

[CryptoGuy]

I hope you recycle those!

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

http://ewn.co.za/2018/01/30/maimane-says-day-zero-pushed-back-to-16-april

CAPE TOWN - Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has confirmed that day zero is now set for 16 April 2018.

Maimane says this is a significant victory as it shows that residents are coming together and cutting water consumption.

Day zero was previously set for 12 April.

 

[Dave]

Saw this posted elsewhere, might be of interest to CT residents.

WHAT DO I THINK IS REALLY GOING ON BEHIND THE CAPE TOWN WATER CRISES **** SHOW?

I’ve been asked a few times. So I’ve taken a bit of time to answer to save airtime and circumvent the inability to do so adequately on whatsapp or Twitter

So let me get this straight. #Drought #WesternCape #DayZero : This has taken me quite a while to figure out. Cape Town is facing running out of water. A major metropole. The implications do not affect Cape Town or Western Cape. The implications affect the whole nation.

Granted the citizens on the coal face are Capetonians but make no mistake the citizens of South Africa will feel the pain.

The Cape is a material contributor to the national economy. There are millions of citizens around the country who have family, relatives and friends living in the Western Cape.

What is staring a major metropole in the face is a reflection of what is and has been happening in increasing numbers of small and large towns across the country.

This latter fact has been largely ignored. Out of sight out of mind. Its out in the open now.

This water crises is about BULK water supply and who controls it.

That’s it, nothing more.

It’s about power.

Under law the Western Cape government can NOT supply BULK water. This means under law Western Cape Government cannot build dams or engage in any activity related to making provision for their own future water security.

Bulk water supply is the exclusive purview of the National Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWAS) under a Minister in the ANC Government and this purview extends to every drop of water stored and supplied in BULK (Dams and one day DESALINATION PLANTS) in the whole of South Africa.

As recently as 14 December 2017, the Minister of Water Affairs sent a letter to Hellen Zille instructing the Western Cape Government, or advising if you prefer, that Government had appointed Umgeni Water out of Kwazulu Natal to come solve the problem by building a desalination plant in Cape Town.

The directive goes on to reference a site at the V&A Waterfront, the exact site earmarked by the Western Cape Government months ago in their emergency response to the looming catastrophe.

However in the case of the Western Cape Government response, their plans are in a far advanced stage, with EOI and tenders in some instances concluded.

Changing course now will delay the building of this desalination plant by months.

So what gives?

Well Umgeni Water is where Government redeployed Dudu Myeni after she brought SAA to its knees.

She is a master of obfuscation, dishonesty, deceit and deception.

The Ministers directive is meant to portray Government taking charge and coming to the rescue, when in fact it’s about who controls the capital expense and who gets the tender.

In October 2017 newspaper reports indicate Umgeni Water might soon be in need of a R3billion bailout.

Newspapers also ran stories regarding an interim Board being appointed at ‘embattled’ Umgeni Water by Minister Nomvula Mokonyane.

Newspapers reported a letter to Mokonyane, lawyers acting for asset manager Futuregrowth accused the minister of illegally appointing Msizi Cele as both Umgeni’s acting chief executive and accounting officer; illegally replacing Cele with Thami Hlongwa in both positions; and giving herself the power to appoint chief executives.

Futuregrowth holds Umgeni Water bonds as Asset Manager for Old Mutual.

So let’s get this straight.

You have a patently tainted SOE dispatched with alacrity to solve a water crises by a Minister in a patently tainted Government controlled by a patently tainted Zuma cabinet in a Province controlled by an opposition party, in the greater interests of its citizens who voted against you.

A province that already has the distinction of having the only major metropole with its entire main line shut down. Another service under the exclusive purview of National Government provided by SOE Metro Rail and Transnet.

Imagine the SOWETO main line being shut down indefinitely.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so. But that’s another story.

It’s about many, many things.

But really it’s about the HIV/AIDS pandemic and Government response under Mbeki. When we turned to beetroot and cabbage remedy mentality in response to a catastrophe that many suggest claimed 300 000 lives.

I strongly suspect it was the realisation of money to be made that shifted government policy from beetroot to condoms and ARV’s hence their obsession with the supply of former and latter with safer sex campaigns almost non existent today.

It’s about the demonstration of total contempt for the value of human lives.

It’s also about gross mismanagement, gross inefficiency, gross negligence, gross incompetence, gross ignorance, gross shortsightedness, ostrich mentality and State Capture.

Which in turn are all about who has the power and who controls the water once it starts flowing again because they will control the revenue and the province and with that a leverage of power.

Which point to deliberate and consequential political, economic and industrial sabotage on a devastating scale by the ANC central Government against the entire people of the Western Cape.

If you think of the current national government as some benevolent uncle you are deeply mistaken as mistaken in thinking National Government is dealing with the crises with any genuine intent, appetite or desire much less honesty, transparency or genuine concern for its people.

Do you really believe after years of scandals, of corruption, ineptitude and plunder the Government has all of a sudden turned some invisible corner?

After being fed a daily diet of bile, a diet of abuse of power, abuse of state, abuse of resources and revenue, of patronage, State capture and haemoraging economy by National Government are you still going to suggest this crises belongs anywhere else whatsoever other than on the shoulders of those who own it?

I think not.

If you think Provincial Government are getting any bi-partisan co-operation, to resolve this crises from Zuma’'s government you’ve got flies in your brains.

The Western Cape is the potential trigger point for a hoped for and intended national disaster I am increasingly coming to strongly suspect.

Business Day, 29 January 2018 - "Cape Town risks having its municipal bonds cut to junk by Moody’s because of its water crisis.

“Two of Cape Town’s main industries, tourism and agriculture, are likely to decline [because of the water crisis], reducing employment, gross value added and tax income,” Moody’s associate analyst Daniel Mazibuko wrote in a research note released on Monday.

“Other effects include threats to public health from poor sanitation and, more generally, to social order, which is significant given Cape Town’s marked income inequality.”"

What this is saying in a nutshell is that Cape Town as ground zero is potentially the epicenter of potential civil unrest which will start among the poor and spread to engulf the entire pininsula and beyond.

If ever the time and opportunity were present to fan the flames of anarchy, dissention and revolution in this country for the many being primed to hate by a post Mandela ANC, this is it.

It has the potential to prove the ideal recipe for state intervention leading to a state of emergency, the imposition of martial law and very possibly lead to wider civil unrest and even civil war.

All of this while Zuma remains in power and ultimate control of the ANC Government and supported by a minority by smallest of margin of most those belonging to the ANC Political Party.

So when next you read or talk about the crises in Western Cape ask your self who stands to lose most by not finding a solution and who stands to gain most by one not being found.

Then ask yourself who has the power to do something.

If the one with the power to do something also happens to be the one who benefits the most from infrastructure, service and delivery collapse, it stands to reason they have a conflict of interest.

It is a conflict that arises naturally out of the conflation of Party and State, where the political party sees itself as the State because they are the majority party in Government.

Which of course they’re not because we are after all a multi party Democracy.

The ANC furthers the aims of its supporters and State furthers the aims of the people.

There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the crises unfolding in the Western Cape is in great part attributable to a corrupt and dysfunctional ANC.

There is little to sweet bugger all Western Cape Government can do about it except try alert people and do whatever they can to get people to use less water.

This in the face of social media campaign’s of ‘unknown’ origin openly encouraging the grand scale wastage of tap water to push the City of Cape Town over the brink and into total anarchy.

In my mind this is no more or less just another opportunity to open a new front in a political, economic and ideological war steeped in race based dogma and hate.

The sooner the people of the Western Cape realise how much they are despised and resented by their ANC government and the sooner they realise what their elected Provincial government is up against the better.

So thank all of you who’ve been asking for my analysis of late of the situation in the Western Cape.

Finally, vasbyt. Be kind to one another. Stand together and help anyone you can. Above all SAVE WATER as if your life depend on it. Start petitions and demand Central Government release your taxes to Western Cape Government to build desalination plants now and to fund other measures.

If it’s about control, Province can build it and allow Government to buy it back.

So stop shouting at Province and start shouting at Government.

https://www.facebook.com/bart.henderson.5/posts/10156019509094174

 

[theratman]

Saw this posted elsewhere, might be of interest to CT residents.



https://www.facebook.com/bart.henderson.5/posts/10156019509094174

My 2c:

Smacks of DA fanboi to me. Shifting all the blame to national government. If it was true the DA themselves would have vocally and publicly lashed out at the DWA and often. Additionally why did they sack DeLille over the handling of the water crisis if it's not their fault? Why are the DA only really stepping things up now, where they powerless in the past?

Then there's the pi$$ poor planning of the water collection points, is that the national governments fault too?

I hate the national government more than the clowns running coct but they're all to blame, not just the national government.

This is a more balanced opinion piece imo :

https://www.news24.com/Columnists/M...rrogant-da-to-blame-for-water-crisis-20180130

 

[Azg]

Saw this posted elsewhere, might be of interest to CT residents.



https://www.facebook.com/bart.henderson.5/posts/10156019509094174

The DA and the ANC grappling in the mud seems to be the clearest sign that Day Zero is now unavoidable. It seems both parties have now realised that the next best thing is to limit the political fallout to their respective parties by going on a full scale blame offensive.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Perhaps they should put up Borehole signs like the rest of the people. That way, the less informed will know and probably not act like they do.

The problem is that the CoCT has asked people nicely not to use boreholes...so the pitchforks would be out regardless.

 

[cenredash]

So you then don't mind if those with the resources cause a water shortage by drawing too much from the dams?

However there is no reason to believe bottled water would not continue to be available without hoarding weeks or months worth. Of course hoarding itself is leading to a temporary shortage, which wouldn't exist otherwise, and if those hoarding continued to accumulate stockpiles they could create a longer shortage even though in reality there'd be enough for everyone to have sufficient drinking water without the hoarding. And if someone is contributing to a shortage by hoarding for their own use to the detriment of many others, then they'd be no different to anyone who used whatever amount of water suited them from the municipal supply. They are after all just looking out for themselves.

A most useful explanation of game theory.

http://ncase.me/trust//

 

[f2wohf]

Saw this posted elsewhere, might be of interest to CT residents.



https://www.facebook.com/bart.henderson.5/posts/10156019509094174

When did the WC Government ask for bulk water?

Why did Zille not sue? (The DA is usually very quick for that).

The Government is as guilty of crass and gross incompetency than that WC government and COCT.

 

[Dave]

When did the WC Government ask for bulk water?

As it was posted as an interest piece for CT residents and not a personal argument I would suggest you go ask the author via the link.

But I would say, I’m pretty sure the WC government and CT council probably only deal in bulk water, I doubt a single residential connection would be enough to supply all of CT...