EFF WC response on the watercrisis in the city Cape Town

The EFF Western Cape is deeply concerned about how the water crises in the City of Cape Town is being handled, and specifically about the lack of proactive planning from the DA-led City Council and their counterparts in the Western Cape Provincial Government.

Dams around Cape Town has a water level of 18% usable water.

At a rate of 1.4% water usage per week from the dams around Cape Town the inhabitants of the City has only less than 3 months usable water left, which means by June 2017, there will be no water in Cape Town fit for human consumption.

It is known for centuries that Cape Town is a water scarce area and for 2 consecutive years of drought the signs of a possible disaster was there for everyone to see.

Only an above average rainfall during the coming winter season will assist the dam levels to recover satisfactorily.

There are less than 3 months left and the City Council is still considering emergency water supply schemes e.g drilling, desalination plants and more water saving methods.

Measures, that will only yield about 4 million liters of water per day, while the City needs 700 million liters of water per day for human consumption and to allow its industries to be operational.

This lack of planning and implementation is indicative of the uselessness of the DA controlled City Council and its executive mayor, Patricia De Lille, or is it a deliberate act to highlight De Lille’s failure by her own DA faithfuls?

Never can we as EFF allow that a Constitutional right, like the provisioning of clean water, be allowed to settle political scores within the Democratic Alliance, or be violated because of lazy thinking.

Bernard Joseph
EFF Western Cape Provincial Chairperson.