Ahmed Moosa, Crawford
Good Day Madam Mayor
We in Cape Town are well aware of the serious situation of the depleting water supplies.
I wrote a letter to the Athlone News in 2015 (“Find solution to water dilemma”, April 15) when we were having the electric outages, saying that I hope the council has plans in place for when we have a water shortage, and to desalinate water.
The response given by Ernest Sonnenberg, the then mayoral committee member for utility services, was: “Given the above, residents should rest assured that the department is in a strong position to ensure water security for at least the next 25 years, and will continue to plan so that access to this essential resource continues to be guaranteed.”
Examining the above reply, what he said is that the council was in a strong position, with a minimum 25 years water supply guaranteed. Now why must we as people living here suffer the consequences and then also pay a phenomenal amount for water when the council messed up? This is their problem. Not ours. We should refuse to pay the exorbitant charges they now want to impose unilaterally. This is like the Shylock of old times.
My suggestion is the following which I hope will be considered:
Close off the taps from now and open it for one or two hours in the morning and again for one or two hours in the evening. We can then put off the so-called Day Zero for another four to five months and hope the rains will come. This way there is no need for trucks, armed police, people queueing and all kinds of trouble.
Please think this over carefully and avoid the problems for the future.
