Monday 20 August 2018

water and inequality in cape town

the inequality in the city of cape town is playing it's role in how we need to respond to the drought.

Yes there is a drought, yes we cannot afford to waste water, yes we need to live more consciously and move closer to living in harmony with mother earth, nature and each other. The effects of climate change are here, man-made or natural disasters, its happening and much sooner than predicted.

How we understand and respond to this situation requires thought and compassion living in a city where some households as a norm

  • do not have easy access to water, they still have to walk to communal taps and backyard dwellers need to pa, often exploitative rates, for the water they use from 'landlords' 
  • are on the drip system due to lack of payment of rates, rent, & services (essentially they already have access to limited amount of water per day
This contrasted with households at the other extreme
  • who have taps indoors, swimming pools, huge lush and lavish gardens with irrigation systems.
between these extremes we have households who have access to tap water indoors.

The response to the drought is therefore demanding different actions from different people based on their economic standing and access to water.  It does demand of all of us to live consciously. 


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