Lesotho sucked dry for South Africans to water their gardens Your water doesn’t come from a tap. If you live in one of South Africa’s big cities – which you probably are because you are reading this – it comes from people making sacrifices somewhere far away. Far away enough that you don’t have to face their reality. That’s why people continue to have green lawns and swimming pools, even though the country is dancing around the prospect of a third year of drought. That’s why Johannesburg Water and other utilities have to threaten fines in order to get people to conserve water. The concept that we live in a water scarce, or semi arid, country seems to be completely missed by the middle and upper class of South Africa. If your lawn is green, you are taking water away from people who now have to slaughter their cattle or find a way to eat less maize. But you can get away with it, because you can afford to just pay more for water. National government gives 6 000-litres of free water to homes each month. That’s calculated to be enough to cover basic access. Middle class homes in big metros use up to 30 000-litres a month. Most of this water comes from a fantastic storage network, built over decades to ensure that South Africa can survive droughts. It is a very serious issue and I fear many South Africans are not at all phased by it whilst water keeps coming out of their taps, and whilst they think "because I pay for it I can use it". Personally I think our water is way too cheap - it needs to at least triple in cost so that people start valuing it more. I was in Gauteng about 3 months back where I experienced a multi-day water outage and it is a lot more serious than one realises - you may be able to buy bottled water (which I had to do) and use that to brush my teeth, drink, etc but is no water either to flush toilets or clear the sewerage system. How long do you think a large city is going to… http://bit.ly/2hk1OQW
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