International South Africa's Water Crisis: Taps Have Run Dry Across Johannesburg

I thought you guys were anti refugees from shitholes and all that jazz.
It’s about being pro-responsible immigration policy. Not anti-anything. And when it comes to countries like South Africa, India, Egypt...these are countries that could correctly be described as shitholes but that also contain people that should be apparent have solid cultural and vocational skills. Such as the white population in South Africa, well educated people in India, Coptics and other Christians in Egypt. Not saying to make total race / religious assumptions, but it has to somewhat inform immigration policy.

Do you not think that Georgia is better importing 50 skilled white South African farmers rather than 50 random blacks from a township in Johannesburg?
 
I'm going to hug my well when I get home.
 
Do you not think that Georgia is better importing 50 skilled white South African farmers rather than 50 random blacks from a township in Johannesburg?

Not going to lie, the thought of this made me chuckle a little.
 
https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/family/pets/ensuring-animal-welfare-for-dayzero-12924040

Ensuring animal welfare for #DayZero

Cape Town — While families are scrambling to make sure they get water on Day Zero, animal lovers are making sure the four-legged ones are also catered for.

Animal Rescue Organisation (ARO) and Water for Paws and are doing their bit by establishing a water collection system to ensure their dog bowls remain full.

The organisations are compiling their own Day Zero water drop-off collection points around Cape Town and are asking the public to donate water to ensure that the animal organisation, ARO hospital and communities with animals in need of water won't be left behind.

ARO spokesperson Karen de Klerk said the organisation is not very hopeful that Day Zero won't occur, and doesn't have a clear message from the City about the water collection process for rescue organisations that assist animals.

“People in bush areas don't have a vehicle to run around to get 25 litres of water for livestock. It's not a happy story. We are hoping to get a filtration system for our borehole, to use water for the hospital and for animals at ARO or coming through the hospital system but what about other animals?” asked De Klerk.

She was not the only one that expressed concern about the welfare of animals during the drought as Cape Town resident Fiona Dimio also feared for animal organisations without water and set up Water for Paws last Friday to collect water reserves for animal organisations.

“All I wanted to do was be a Capetonian trying to do my part in the current water crisis that we see ourselves in. With Day Zero approaching and the taps to be turned off, I wondered what would happen to the animal rescue centres and the individual Animal Rescue Angels.


“I could not sit back and hope that “someone else would do something” so I started Water for Paws. The response has been astounding water has been rolling in fast. We're collecting water from Joburg and Cape Town,” said Dimio.

The executive director for safety and security for the City of Cape Town, Richard Bosman, said the City is entering into engagements with animal organisations to work out what will be the best way to meet their water needs in a Day Zero scenario.

With regard to household pets, Mayco member for informal settlements, water and waste services and energy councillor Xanthea Limberg said households must devise plans to stay within the 50 litres of water allocation, while accommodating the essential needs of every living being.

To find out more about ARO and where you can donate water, contact Karen de Klerk on 0813520927 or e-mail [email protected]
 
Do you not think that Georgia is better importing 50 skilled white South African farmers rather than 50 random blacks from a township in Johannesburg?

Im not really a fan of non-economic immigration, so i agree with you that skills must be shown so that people dont become a burden.

But it weird to separate them on black and white, im sure there are tons of blacks in Africa who are in danger and also have the capacity to work and support themselves.

In fact isnt that one of the issues where Haitians are losing temporary protection status? i say give them the opportunity to earn their stay through hard work.

There are a few thousand Haitians in Mexico which the US never allowed protected status, they seem to be quick into establishing their means of living, factories willing to hire them and they are setting up their own shops however they want.

I doubt there are many people in the world willing to become hobos in foreign countries.
 
Im not really a fan of non-economic immigration, so i agree with you that skills must be shown so that people dont become a burden.

But it weird to separate them on black and white, im sure there are tons of blacks in Africa who are in danger and also have the capacity to work and support themselves.

In fact isnt that one of the issues where Haitians are losing temporary protection status? i say give them the opportunity to earn their stay through hard work.

There are a few thousand Haitians in Mexico which the US never allowed protected status, they seem to be quick into establishing their means of living, factories willing to hire them and they are setting up their own shops however they want.

I doubt there are many people in the world willing to become hobos in foreign countries.
I would never assume blacks are worse than whites or vice versa simply because they are black. But in the example provided by the earlier post by @alanb there was clearly a specific type of worker that the Georgians were looking for and I’m guessing that whites filled that role better than blacks. And if there was an element of, not going to say racism, but rather, “let’s import people who look more like us” from the Georgians, then I’m certainly not going to hold it against them.
 
I would never assume blacks are worse than whites or vice versa simply because they are black. But in the example provided by the earlier post by @alanb there was clearly a specific type of worker that the Georgians were looking for and I’m guessing that whites filled that role better than blacks. And if there was an element of, not going to say racism, but rather, “let’s import people who look more like us” from the Georgians, then I’m certainly not going to hold it against them.

Me neither, and if they have the needed skills more power to them.
 
Why Cape Town’s water could run out in April
Feb 1st 2018 by E.C.S



THE people of Cape Town have spent recent years praying for rain. It has not come often enough. Lawns have faded to brown and swimming pools have gone dry. The dams that hold the South African city’s water supply are now at just 26% of capacity. Officials warn of the likelihood of a Day Zero, when the level at the dams will drop below 13.5% and the city’s water supply will have to be turned off. (The 13.5% level is set by the city, which notes that it may be hard to extract any water at all if it falls below 10%.) Unless things change, Day Zero is due to fall on April 16th, though earlier estimations suggested both April 12th and April 21st. It will make Cape Town the world’s first big city to run dry. Residents will have to queue to get water rations—25 litres per person per day—from collection points under armed guard. Already water pressure from the taps has been throttled. Residents have grown used to short showers, and loos are seldom flushed. Hotels have removed bathtub plugs from rooms. How did this happen?

Cape Town is South Africa’s second-biggest city, with a population of around 4m. But the development of new water supplies has not kept pace with population growth. And the situation has been pushed to crisis point by the weather. Cape Town has seen little rainfall in recent winters, when most of it comes. According to Piotr Wolski, a researcher with the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, the drought in the city’s water-catchment area between 2015 and 2017 was of a once-in-300-years magnitude. The city mayor, Patricia de Lille, has also blamed wasteful residents who fail to observe water-use limits. According to the city, only 41% of Capetonians complied with these targets when they stood at 87 litres of water per person per day. This target has now been cut to 50 litres per person, in order to reduce collective daily consumption to 450m litres. Under a punitive new tariff structure, people who use huge amounts of water will pay dearly.

Cape Town is South Africa’s second-biggest city, with a population of around 4m. But the development of new water supplies has not kept pace with population growth. And the situation has been pushed to crisis point by the weather. Cape Town has seen little rainfall in recent winters, when most of it comes. According to Piotr Wolski, a researcher with the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, the drought in the city’s water-catchment area between 2015 and 2017 was of a once-in-300-years magnitude. The city mayor, Patricia de Lille, has also blamed wasteful residents who fail to observe water-use limits. According to the city, only 41% of Capetonians complied with these targets when they stood at 87 litres of water per person per day. This target has now been cut to 50 litres per person, in order to reduce collective daily consumption to 450m litres. Under a punitive new tariff structure, people who use huge amounts of water will pay dearly.

A good rainfall, combined with adherence to that 50-litre target, could stave off Day Zero until the much-hoped-for arrival of winter rains in late April or early May. New water sources are being rushed to completion, including desalination plants and projects to extract water from aquifers. Many residents wonder how much of the crisis is to be blamed on the weather, and how much on a lack of government planning. Cape Town and the Western Cape province in which it sits are run by the Democratic Alliance (DA), a party that prides itself on clean and efficient governance. But concerns were raised long ago about the city’s future water supply. Problems have been exacerbated by a local leadership crisis, with the DA seeking to remove Ms de Lille over corruption allegations (which she denies). And further issues arise from tensions in the relationship between the DA and the African National Congress (ANC), which governs nationally. The DA has accused the ANC of failing to fund water projects.

As Day Zero approaches, confusion is growing about how this waterless city might work. Some city officials worry about the possibility of disease spreading in tandem with the reduction in hand-washing and basic hygiene. South Africa is already dealing with a serious outbreak of food-borne listeriosis. Many businesses will have to shut, though the city says it will keep water flowing to high-density business areas, as well as hospitals, schools and poor townships. Tourism to Cape Town, a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish South African economy, could suffer. The other main industry in the Cape, agriculture, is already ailing. There could also be political fallout for the DA, which is seeking to challenge the ANC on a national level in next year’s polls. All of this could change, should the rain return.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/eco...nswatercouldrunoutinapriltheeconomistexplains
 
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Subscription wall.

Here's the Premier of the Western Cape's take on roughly that question:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opi...und-lets-get-back-to-essentials/#.Wnftv66WbIV

So it’s time for a summary of the essentials.

In the interests of brevity, I’ll start in 2014 when the dams feeding the Western Cape Water Supply System were full-to-overflowing.

Now, four years later, they are at real risk of running dry.

This is not a normal drought. Hydrologists analysing rainfall records as far back as they go have calculated that a severe three-year drought in the Western Cape has a .25% chance of occurring. This is plotted on a time graph as a “once-in-400-year event”. No government can plan and allocate budgets for such rare events. If we did, most of our effort and money would be devoted to preparing for calamities that would never happen (when we don’t even have adequate resources for our routine jobs). That is why all governments have a transversal disaster management function to deal with these very rare events, should they occur.

At the end of 2015, after our first low-rainfall winter, the Western Cape government applied, through the National Disaster Management Centre, for the declaration of a provincial state of disaster, as we were concerned about the possible impact of a second dry winter in 2016. Citing the fact that our dams were still 75% full, the national government rejected our request, but enabled us to declare “municipal disasters” in the six worst-affected local government areas.

I must confess, I understood the national department’s logic: With dams 75% full, we could still get through the 2016 winter, even if the drought continued, as long as everyone consciously started to save water. It was important to use this as an opportunity to start changing South Africa’s profligate water culture. This is essential if our population continues to grow in one of the 30 driest countries on Earth.

Our fears of another dry winter in 2016 materialised, and the situation became really serious.

Early in 2017, when we were profoundly worried about the outside chance of the drought continuing into its third winter, the South African Weather Service calmed our nerves by predicting a “wetter than normal” rainy season.

Despite this, we continued to press for the provincial disaster declaration, especially in greater Cape Town, which would enable us to prepare for the worst-case scenario of the drought continuing (as unlikely as it seemed) by shifting funds between budgets, and undertaking more rapid procurement measures, where necessary. And crucially, a disaster declaration would have helped us to highlight national government’s role in providing increased bulk water supply for a rapidly growing city caught in the claws of climate change.

Our request was once more rejected, with the national department of Water and Sanitation publicly dismissing our appeal as an attempt by us to get more money for water infrastructure (as if this was some sort of nefarious hidden agenda). Of course, we wanted more infrastructure (such as desalination plants). We needed them.

We pointed out that, despite the SA Weather Service’s optimistic predictions of rain, a continuation of the drought was at least an outside possibility, and it was now essential to take pre-emptive action.

The national department’s reply was simple: you are not getting any more money. You have to do this by cutting water use.

Déjà vu. The department had said exactly the same in the early 2000s when the City was engaged in a battle with them over the need to build the Berg River Dam. Fortunately, the City got its way, otherwise we would have run out of water long ago. The dam’s contribution to the Western Cape Water Supply System should have met our needs till 2022 – were it not for this unpredictable and unprecedented drought.

This does not mean that increasing supply, on its own, would provide the answer to a climate-change challenge that we call the “new normal”. Having read quite a lot about the impending water crisis, worldwide, I understand the point the national department’s hydrologists were making about “demand management” (even though drastically reducing water use was never going to be enough, on its own, to prevent our taps running dry).

And while we were doing our best to get the “water saving” message across, it was galling to read how much money the national government was lavishing on increasing water infrastructure elsewhere in the country, and how these disbursements were inexplicably ballooning. (In the Giyani water augmentation scheme in Limpopo, for example, the initial budget of R500-million somehow ended up as an expenditure of R2,8-billion). It is easy to join the dots in relation to the Department of Water and Sanitation’s projects (following their latest audit outcome which showed the worst levels of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the country).

Neither is it surprising that the national government chose to ignore Cape Town’s water augmentation needs, thereby creating the real risk that it would become the first major city in the world to run out of water.

Best of all, in this scenario, the DA could be blamed for the crisis.

In this context, the biggest mistake the City could have made was to step up to the plate to take responsibility for a national government function -- the provision of bulk water infrastructure. In making unrealistic commitments about water augmentation, the City played right into the narrative that the national government was determined to create – that the water crisis was a result of the City’s failure, and that it was doing too little too late (about something it should not have been doing anything about at all).

Trying to procure emergency bulk water infrastructure within the constraints of the Municipal Finance Management Act – which limits financial transactions to short payback periods – proved unaffordable for the City. By promising to resolve the crisis within prohibitive legal and financial constraints, the City positioned itself firmly in the public mind as the authority responsible for generating the crisis and then failing to resolve it.

The City called for tenders – but when the constraints became clear, failed to adjudicate them. The mayor switched focus from desalination to aquifer abstraction. And the outcry grew.

Many people, especially business people, say: Why bother about the legal constraints? This is a crisis. When there is a crisis in business you have to take extraordinary measures to resolve it. You must do the same in government.” Then they usually illustrate their point by giving a business case study.

My reply is: In business you can do what you believe needs to be done, unless the law specifically prohibits it.

In government, by contrast, we can only do what the law specifically allows us to do.

The difference is substantial. In business, you are free to move in the direction you choose, until you hit a barrier. In government you cannot move at all unless you open the triple combination lock on your cage first. And when the code and keys are in the hands of your opponent, you can’t get out of the starting blocks. This is what it is like in government when you try to solve a problem that falls outside your constitutional mandate. That is why the City had no option but to try to source the budget by charging residents a drought levy (for using less water). No wonder there was such resistance!

We, in the province, wanted to bring court action to force national government to fulfil its mandate. But this option is not the “no-brainer” it first appears. The Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act requires a long and tortuous process of trying to reach solutions before a court challenge becomes possible. What’s more, the bankrupt national department had every possible motive to stretch out the process. Day Zero would have been upon us long before this.

There was another problem. We could not convince the mayor to start processes towards a court challenge. She said, with some justification, that Capetonians did not want to see politicians squabbling in a crisis. They wanted solutions.

So while the mayor accepted the responsibility for increasing bulk supply (that residents would pay for), the province continued with plans for a court challenge, now significantly complicated by the City’s tacit acceptance of the national minister’s position.

All the while, Day Zero was moving from the realms of possibility to probability. And that changed the rules of the game, because the power to manage and co-ordinate disasters lies firmly with provincial government. We have been meeting every week for a year already, in preparation for a situation (which we hoped would never materialise) where we would have to supplement the city’s Day Zero water distribution plan with a comprehensive delivery plan, and taken substantial steps to secure public institutions, such as hospitals and schools, and prepare an emergency procurement framework. All that is ready.

Whether, in addition to all of these measures, we initiate a court case against the national government to compel it to fulfil its mandate, depends largely on the outcome of a meeting that I have arranged with the national Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, on Wednesday.

But what about water augmentation?

Let me be plain: Despite regular assurances to the contrary, none of the City’s augmentation schemes, not even ground water abstraction, are going to be ready before the projected Day Zero date. We can only postpone the arrival of that date by saving water.

In addition, we must also go ahead with augmentation as a matter of urgency in the unthinkable event that the drought continues into its fourth year, which would be nothing short of catastrophic. The weather service is not sticking its neck out again. It has told us in words of one syllable: We cannot predict this winter’s rainfall. Climate change has rendered our prediction models virtually worthless.

The bitter truth, however, is that even in a state of disaster, we cannot go beyond the bounds of what the law allows. So a disputation of lawyers (yes, that is the collective noun) is answering the following questions for me: Does the disaster declaration enable the province to take over and quickly adjudicate the interminable supply chain processes the City is undertaking for new augmentation projects? Can we legally enter water off-take agreements with the private sector that extend for 25 years, despite the constraints imposed by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)? Are there processes by which we can reclaim the money disbursed? What will our position be if the rains return, and the additional infrastructure turns out to be superfluous to our needs, but we have to continue paying anyway? How do we expedite emergency procurement processes while remaining within the law?

I have asked that the answers are with me today (Monday). I dare not move without absolute clarity, because even in a state of disaster, if I put one toe across the line of what is legally allowed, my opponents will pounce, the process will be stalled, and nothing will happen. Hard as it may be to believe, and as conspiratorial as it may sound, there are too many people out there with a vested interest in seeing Cape Town run out of water, because they know it will mean Day Zero for the DA.

And there are other vested interests too, as people are now beginning to understand. The national Minister of Water and Sanitation has made her intention clear of keeping the private sector out of water augmentation projects, while offering to send in a state-owned enterprise, previously mired in scandal, to provide a small-scale desalinator (for which residents will pay). The scope for Eskom-style corruption involved in this process is obvious.

While this may explain the nature of the problem, it does not provide the clear solution for which people are looking. At present there is only one sure-fire way of avoiding Day Zero. This involves everyone using less than 50 litres per day, supported by the City’s “throttling” regime of lowering water pressure to reduce supply.

The only entirely reliable augmentation so far has come from farmers with private dams in the Palmiet River area, who have had plentiful rain, and are transferring enough water to the Steenbras Dam to push back Day Zero by 20 days. Substantial additional help has also come from those farmers, dependent on the Western Cape Water Supply System, who have agreed to cut back their water use dramatically. If there are any heroes in this sorry saga, it is these (oft-maligned) farmers.

This week we saw, for the first time, a growing number of residents understanding the seriousness of what we are facing. If we can use this crisis to change our “water culture” – create a whole new water economy to produce, augment, package, distribute, and recycle water – we would have taken a major leap forward. My question is: why do South Africans always seem to have to get to the brink of disaster before we do so? DM
 
@Arkain2K "Day Zero" has shifted again. 11 May.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...nians-urged-to-continue-saving-water-20180205

Cape Town - Day Zero, the day residents may have to start queueing for water, is expected to move out to mid-May 2018 due to a decline in agricultural usage, deputy mayor Ian Neilson said in a statement on Monday.

However, he urged Capetonians to continue reducing consumption to avoid Day Zero.

"There has not been any significant decline in urban usage. All Capetonians must therefore continue to use no more than 50 litres per person per day to help stretch our dwindling supplies," said Neilson.

Day Zero is based on the previous week's daily consumption average of 547Ml/day. This is 97ml above the target of 450Ml.


The latest data from the City of Cape Town indicate that the City's progress in securing alternative water sources is at 62%.

 
The movie, based on Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, tells the story of four investors who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse in 2008 and decided to bet against Wall Street, earning billions of dollars in the process.

The first of these investors that predicted the housing bubble was Dr. Michael Burry, who is portrayed in The Big Short by Christian Bale.

While the movie does a great job explaining how Michael Burry was able to make nearly $1 billion betting against the housing market in 2008, it left many viewers very puzzled about a completely different issue – the last line of the movie, printed on a placard, is:

“Michael Burry is focusing all of his trading on one commodity: Water.”

This is a perplexing statement, because unlike other commodities like oil, cotton, or silver, there is no market to trade water.

So how can someone invest in water? Should you just buy a rain bucket?

Well, you have 3 different options if you want to invest in water:

  1. Purchase water rights
  2. Invest in water-rich farmland
  3. Invest in water utilities, infrastructure, and equipment.
https://vintagevalueinvesting.com/how-to-invest-in-water-like-michael-burry-from-the-big-short/

Reminds of a story I saw awhile ago about the guy Christian Bale played in the Big Short.

Australia has a water trading system for the Murray darling basin. It's considered the Best in the world.

If you want in D20.asx is a pure play and BAF.asx is about 15% water the rest alternative assets.

Both invest in perpetual water rights they then lease on contract ranging from months to 7 years iirc.
 
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