[openfly]

@Capetonianm Avis have used grey water for car cleaning for a few months now. This means that the visual check for scratches and damage on collection is even more important now. They don’t even fill the windscreen water bottles!
Good news about the further delay of Zero Day. Having brought it forward to the 6th April one has to wonder how the have managed to put it back two months. Possibly hoping that it will rain…..

[capetonianm]

The longer they delay D0 for, the longer it can be delayed, if that makes sense. What I’m saying is that if they can delay it until the rains start, hopefully mid April, then the urgency to implement D0 will recede further.

[bluemooner]

As a Durban boy (now living in London) but with family still in the KZN Midlands and the Drakensberg, or as you may hear “uKhahlamba” let me know if you need recommendations for an awesome restaurant/hotel.

Marc_ACB – Thanks, but have been going virtually every year since 1977, so I pretty much know what’s lekker!

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=851191]I have just booked a rental car in CPT for next week and as soon as you request the car types, a pop-up box tells you that due to the water shortage, the outsides of cars are not being washed.[/quote]

Maybe wrong, but there are plenty of car washes nearby that will wash your car. They use a one bucket and some sponges and you pay about R.70
I know the situation is bad but many cars when returned are full of sand and I wouldn’t be to happy getting a filthy car. As Openfly says they can use grey water to wash them.

[LuganoPirate]

PS. CT has had some rain these last two days.
This link is quite interesting as well.

http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review/damlevels.pdf

[capetonianm]

Sad and ironic

Cape Town – Nine people drowned in flash floods in the Western Cape, the province’s traffic chief said on Wednesday.

“In total nine people lost their lives in flooding in the Western Cape shortly after 12 o’clock,” said Kenny Africa.

He said four women and a man drowned when they jumped out of their car to get away from a big mass of water advancing toward them on the High Noon pass, outside Villiersdorp, in the Caledon area.

“The [five] occupants got a fright jumped out and the water washed them away,” said Africa.

In another incident in the Montagu area four men, a driver and three passengers, died after they could not escape flood waters bearing down on them.

The province is struggling through a crippling drought, with Tuesday’s rare rain celebrated before news of the tragedy struck.

[LuganoPirate]

Day Zero now pushed back to June 4th!
But this was before the rain, which had not really helped CT.

[SimonS1]

So Day Zero is now pushed out to 2019 and the local authorities/media are reiterating that visitors should not be cancelling visits.

Still some way to go but it looks like knickers can be untwisted.

http://coct.co/water-dashboard

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=856510]So Day Zero is now pushed out to 2019 and the local authorities/media are reiterating that visitors should not be cancelling visits.

Still some way to go but it looks like knickers can be untwisted.

http://coct.co/water-dashboard[/quote]

And since day Zero was first announced some months back, the dam levels have remained around 22 – 23% full.

[SimonS1]

Interesting article in today’s Biznews telling the story of the ‘Day Zero’ farce and the damage to the local economy caused by articles telling people not to come to CT.

The truth about Day Zero: A very CURIOUS tale of political spin

And some interesting people too….Tony Leon’s communications agency….

[LuganoPirate]

The Cape Town situation was helped by farmers releasing 10 billion litres of their reserves and they are still hoping all will be fine when the winter rains arrive in April/May.

Ironically since I returned we’ve had almost non-stop rain and the Mossel Bay / George dams are virtually 100% full. But this has not benefited CT. Where we are there are no water restrictions, though people are still being careful.

[capetonianm]

There are so many conflicting views on this. I have heard that tourism only uses 2-4% of the water. It may well be that the benefits of tourism exceed their use of precious water. I am aware of some visitors being very observant of the restrictions, and others openly heard to state that they don’t really care. Extending or abolishing D0 is likely to make people relax and use more water, and if it’s all been a political game, then it will probably be seen to have backfired, a bit of a classic case of ‘the boy who cried wolf’.

[SimonS1]

Hasn’t it already backfired? Helen de Lille’s interfaith prayers for water only resulted in her being stood down, and of course the finding that Tony Leon’s PR consultancy was involved.

And Day Zero suddenly shooting back almost a year.

To be fair it is South Africa we are talking about though, so mismanagement is presumably par for the course.

All we need now is for SAA to claim their aircraft run on tap water and to blame Cape Town for all its ills.

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=857455]All we need now is for SAA to claim their aircraft run on tap water and to blame Cape Town for all its ills.[/quote]

😉 😉 😉

but there’s many a true word said in jest Simon,

[LuganoPirate]

Here I am in CT. My arrival heralded two days of much needed rain but now its sunny again. I was told hotel bookings with all the large hotels are down by over 40% as groups stay away frightened by press reports of water restrictions and riots. Tourists only use 2% of the water but there have been many layoffs of staff due to the fall in tourism.

The reality is hotels have enough water and where I am they have a spring and a bore hole which gives them all the water they need without relying on municipal water. There’s still plenty of water left which just goes into the sea. In fact 325 million litres a day of fresh water – half of cape town’s needs – flows into the sea from fresh water springs.

Nonetheless my hotel has water tanks to catch the rain water for the pools and gardens and they ask to change the sheets every other day, and not too take baths to further safe water. Wine, gin and tonic fortunately all in good supply!

[Author]

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