What happens to a major city of millions of residents when they suddenly realise that their water taps are just about to run dry due to prolonged drought?They shift from the high gear of reckless water use and change into a lower speed in using supplies in order to save as much water as they can in order to avoid experiencing ‘Day Zero’.
She advised: “Water from hair-wash should go into the toilet cistern.
No-one in Cape Town should be using fresh water to flush toilets.
Thabo Lusithi, who lives in an informal settlement in Khayelitsha Township, outside Cape Town, said her area continued to have the same poor water delivery service as before the drought, where many households share few water standpipes.
Residents of these areas have long been used to having problems of low water pressure and long periods when water pipes stop functioning altogether.
In this opposition Democratic Alliance controlled city, Zille is not alone in going for days without a shower.
But local and national political leaders, however, do not seem to want to take full responsibility in solving the water crisis that has hit Cape Town, if their recent public spat is anything to go by.
Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, speaking in Parliament, urged the opposition-led Western Cape Province government to take full responsibility in dealing with the water crisis, rather than blaming the national government for the problem.
But the minister would have none of it, telling the two opposition leaders: “I am not at war with anyone.
Certainly not the thirsty and shower-less residents of Cape Town – who have now realised that water is the new gold of South Africa which must be treated with all manners of care.