8th November 2024

Water Crisis: Another Ethekwini Own Goal

The most laughable of Xaba’s measures is the installation of restrictors on water meters for ALL consumers.

ANC governance of eThekwini Municipality continues to be a series of own goals, the latest being its measures to reduce water consumption (The Mercury, October 1).

Its recent lament over the shoddy state of the Metro is entirely its own fault for failing to ensure that basic cleansing, sweeping, verge, open space and infrastructure maintenance is enforced.

For twenty years water losses have increased and now exceed 55%. The measures Mayor Xaba intends imposing are ones we have heard before and would not be necessary if they had been applied and adhered to long ago.

The most laughable of Xaba’s measures is the installation of restrictors on water meters for ALL consumers. This is the tallest of tall orders because his staff can’t read all the water meters on a regular basis, so how is this quantum leap going to occur?

Of course, the easy part of this scheme will be to place restrictors on the folks who loyally pay their water bills and who dwell in areas which are not slums. Where the real water losses occur and where usage is abused, are unlikely to have restrictors installed.

As for the mayor’s plan to “educate communities on water conservation”—another o own goal. The provision of free water in informal areas and areas like the Bluff Show Grounds where daily taxis are washed and large containers freely filled with water, has produced a mindset and a culture that is impervious to conservation.