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

[Rouxenator]

More proof that the CoCT is in this for the money : https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/petition-to-prevent-free-water-closure-in-newlands-11190344

A petition to prevent the closure of the popular Springs Way natural water collection point in Newlands has gained hundreds of signatures within days.
The petition had been started by local businessman Riyaz Rawoot, following allegations that the City of Cape Town planned to close the water collection point.

Rawoot said everyone should have access to the spring water, which has been around for decades.

He started the petition four days ago and has already received 400 signatures.

Approached for comment on the closure of the collection point, the City failed to respond before going to print.

“It is unfair to close access to free water. This is the best water. I remember collecting water here as a child. This water comes from the mountain,” Rawoot said.

“They should leave these outlets we need the water because it is a life necessity and people have been coming here for years.

“Why not maintain the collection point and improve it? Make it more accessible to more people, everybody needs it.”

Rawoot plans to continue his petition. His action follows an e-mail sent by Ward 59 councillor Ian Iversen in May in which he said that level 4 water restrictions were to be implemented and that it would apply to water from natural springs around the city too.

In the e-mail, Iversen said: “The mayor (Patricia de Lille) has made the point that these restrictions also need to apply to the ‘free water’ from springs around the city, and therefore people will be restricted as to how much water individuals are allowed to collect.

“A meeting will be held this coming Friday with SA Breweries and the Water Department to discuss the spring in SpringsWay off Kildare Road, Newlands, and how to address the current situation.

“Some of the suggestions being discussed will be to reroute the water from the spring to link it up to Albion springs to be integrated into the municipal water system, or to SA Breweries for collection at the depot.”

Rawoot said Iversen never reverted to the community, but understood that the closure of the collection point was still being considered so he started his petition.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ziziba helps Capetonians collect and carry water at the collection point every day.

“Many people come here every day I’d say more than 500 a day,” Ziziba said.

“I help people collect water from the fountain, and carry bottles to their cars.

“If this fountain had to be closed, I would feel really bad because it is like my job I don’t charge people but some do give me tips.”

 

[theratman]

Not sure how much truth there is to this do to the source but still worth a wtf. https://www.thesouthafrican.com/hel...l-per-day-over-cape-town-water-usage-targets/

 

[Zoomzoom]

Not sure how much truth there is to this do to the source but still worth a wtf. https://www.thesouthafrican.com/hel...l-per-day-over-cape-town-water-usage-targets/

Good question. I wonder if the local powers-that-be will be paying the same heinous "drought" tariffs they have decided to levy on domestic households from liter 1 (which is against the law - they may only levy additional tariffs from 6 KL upwards) if the local dam falls below 50%.

 

[schumi]

Many Capetonians ignoring water restrictions - City

Cape Town – Many Capetonians are failing to adhere to level 5 water restrictions, with only one out of two limiting their daily personal water consumption to 87 litres, the City of Cape Town said.

The City of Cape Town announced level 5 water restrictions earlier this month.

Mayoral committee member for water and waste services Xanthea Limberg said, in a statement on Monday, that a large percentage of residents were seemingly not bothered by the restrictions and increased water tariffs.

"[Therefore], our recently implemented Level 5 restrictions also look at ways to force usage down among water users who are not changing their behaviour,” Limberg said.

"This is especially important as we head towards what we are all expecting to be an incredibly difficult summer season for 2017/18."

City-wide consumption on Monday had increased to an average of 624 million litres per day, compared to 614 million litres a week ago. This is 124 million litres above the City’s 500 million litres per day target.

The City said its drought efforts were centred around reducing collective water usage to 500 million litres per day, while bringing on board alternative water sources which would produce an estimated 500 million litres of water per day.

The alternative water sources include desalination, wastewater-reuse and groundwater.

"[This will] see the city through as much of summer 2017/18 as possible," Limberg said.

News24
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/many-capetonians-ignoring-water-restrictions-city-20170918

 

[2023]

Cape Town – Many Capetonians are failing to adhere to level 5 water restrictions, with only one out of two limiting their daily personal water consumption to 87 litres, the City of Cape Town said.

The City of Cape Town announced level 5 water restrictions earlier this month.

How the **** does cape town know this seeing as water readings haven't been done yet for September?

 

[Hosehead]

How the **** does cape town know this seeing as water readings haven't been done yet for September?

August water readings ? Goal has always been down to 500 million and never near that goal yet ... the city has intensified their flow restrictor campaign on domestic abusers this month
However level 5 focuses on commercial users so I have no idea what the city knows .

 

[Zoomzoom]

You know what REALLY annoys me ... here is a bit foretelling for you.

After this drought, when people have become habituated to using less water and have put in tanks / well points / xeriscaped etc. and water consumption remains lower ... and the income drops as a result ... they WILL implement some kind of basic 'supply' tariff like they have with the electricity because ... f---ck the consumer who DARES to actually use less when told to.

 

[Rouxenator]

It's all lies. Rivers are flowing, dams have water in them.

 

[C4Cat]

Not sure how much truth there is to this do to the source but still worth a wtf. https://www.thesouthafrican.com/hel...l-per-day-over-cape-town-water-usage-targets/

Parched Cape taxpayers fork out for Zille’s R90‚000 water purifier
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/so...rs-fork-out-for-zilles-r90000-water-purifier/

 

[grok]

Parched Cape taxpayers fork out for Zille’s R90‚000 water purifier
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/so...rs-fork-out-for-zilles-r90000-water-purifier/

Good, that'll save them some water usage..

 

[chrisc]

Three people I know of who are totally off the grid as far as water is concerned - two in Hout Bay, one in Kalk Bay, have all had to insert marble filters to reduce the acidity of the ground water.

The fellow in Hout Bay found that the unions between the pipes were corroding as one sprung a minute leak one way. The brass union just disintegrated when he removed it

 

[xrapidx]

Good, that'll save them some water usage..

Yes it will, considering she doesn't adhere to the regulations.

 

[Captain Beer]

Parched Cape taxpayers fork out for Zille’s R90‚000 water purifier
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/so...rs-fork-out-for-zilles-r90000-water-purifier/

Although it's not Zille's water purifier is it. Is she planning to take it with when she leaves Leeuwenhof?

 

[nightjar]

Yes it will, considering she doesn't adhere to the regulations.

The article was written with the intention of giving a dishonest picture and borders on libel.

The leaky bucket of media credibility
Helen Zille analyses the TimesLive report on her family's supposed water usage at Leeuwenhof Estate

….......At the other end of the spectrum, one soon learns which journalists are driven by agendas, ranging from personal grudges to political bias. This has become so commonplace, that it is time to call it out where it occurs.

Which brings me to the subject of this article. It is the first in an occasional series that will try to get closer to the truth when facts are misrepresented, manipulated or egregiously distorted in the media.

This first one focuses on water usage at Leeuwenhof Estate,

The key point of the article was that I (and my family) had failed to abide by water restrictions, with the headline insinuating that I was installing a water purifier to avoid water restrictions altogether.

The print version cited “evidence that Zille’s family has failed dismally to meet consumption targets set by the City of Cape Town, where she was former mayor.”

So how did the journalist, Aphiwe de Klerk who covers provincial politics for The Times, and the sub-editor who wrote the headline, arrive at these conclusions?

What he failed to mention was that Minister Grant’s reply showed that the July reading was merely an “estimate”, and not an actual meter reading, while August’s figure was an “actual” amount. Estimated water usage is always much higher than actual use -- sometimes more than double -- as illustrated by the difference between the July and August figures. But this crucial “detail” did not suit the spin of the story.

Analysing the house’s 2017’s water consumption based on five monthly “estimates” and three “actual” meter readings, De Klerk erroneously concludes: “In the year to date, Leeuwenhof residents have used an average of 165 litres of water per day”.......................

And “Helen Zille’s private water purifier cost drought-stricken taxpayers a whopping R90,000”.

So what are the facts? Firstly, it is impossible to analyse water usage on the basis of the number of people who actually live in Leeuwenhof. Approximately 30 additional people spend their working day on the estate, while the number of people in the manor house itself (to which the answer referred) ranges between six and ten during various times of the working day. They all spend more waking hours there than I do, and everyone, of course, uses the available facilities.

When I asked Mrs Mahomed about the report on the water purification system, she told me it was being installed in the catchment area at the gate to filter water for drinking purposes -- water that would otherwise run into the sea.

Given the number of people who use potable water at Leeuwenhof every day, this is a positive development.

So, yes, there is a story here, Aphiwe. It is a story of how we are transforming and reducing water usage at Leeuwenhof, and harvesting water that would otherwise be wasted; if there is any scandal here, it is why it has taken such a long time to navigate all the red tape involved to arrive at this point.

The story is not the one that you, your sub-editor and the ANC sought to tell, and which the on-line outrage manufacturers so quickly picked up for their own purposes. It is not the first time you have spun a story like this, and each time you do, the price you pay is a little bit more of your journalistic credibility.

The full article is worth a read.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinio...il&utm_term=0_a86f25db99-8d054105ea-130029393

 

[xrapidx]

In that case - its impossible for the city to apply restrictions to me - as I too have various people in and out the house...and they also use the facilities.


Just this weekend I had over twenty people at the house. Yesterday I had four people. Monday I had three people. Tomorrow I'm expecting five.

 

[Geoff.D]

Libel on whose part?
That so-called journalist de Klerk or the writer of the rebuttal article, or Helen Zille?

 

[Archer]

The full article is worth a read.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinio...il&utm_term=0_a86f25db99-8d054105ea-130029393

I wonder what the mybb pitchfork brigade has to say about this?

 

[xrapidx]

There was someone that posted earlier that the city told them to get lost when they said they had quite a few water users on the property - and that it was impossible for them to have so many people - why doesn't that apply here?

 

[nightjar]

Libel on whose part?
That so-called journalist de Klerk or the writer of the rebuttal article, or Helen Zille?

Bordering on libel on the part the so-called journalist de Klerk!
Helen Zille is the writer of the rebuttal article.
I thought it was pretty obvious.

 

[Gordon_R]

Libel on whose part?
That so-called journalist de Klerk or the writer of the rebuttal article, or Helen Zille?

The original article is not libel, but an all too common example of careless journalism, driven by an agenda, and focused on an individual representing a political party.

As a point scoring exercise it is irrelevant, since the premier is a Provincial post, water restrictions are a Municipal regulation. The property is a working residence, and belongs to the state, not an individual.

FWIW I think that discussion should be in a separate thread about the ethics of journalism, since it contributes nothing to the broader issue of water restrictions.