Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink*…for some at least

Something topical for us here in the Western Cape…. namely a significant drought that has the City of Cape Town declaring April 12th 2018 as ‘Day Zero’ – when  the taps will run dry and ‘alternative’ water solutions will have to be found.

If you are interested you can Google: Cape Town aquifers, water ships, ground water extraction restrictions, desalination plants ad infinitum but what appears to be the horror of it all is that only a small percentage of the City’s inhabitants are making any efforts at all to reduce their daily consumption in line with City approved maximum. It is rumoured that less than 40% of residents are adhering to the daily limits, with many not changing their behaviour at all…. but why? It can’t be that they have not been informed as newspapers, bill boards, shopping malls, office complexes, television stations, radio and social media abound with calls to arms, useful water saving tips and dire warnings, so why is it that a large percentage of the population has decided that it doesn’t apply to them?

Is it perhaps the same mental-mass phenomenon that caused the average Brit to think that they would be the only one to vote ‘OUT’ and have a poke at those in Westminster, causing Brexit?

Maybe the folk of Cape Town don’t understand the powerful effect when everyone pulls in one direction, or possibly the brutal truth is they really believe it’s someone else’s problem, it won’t happen to them and finally they just don’t care.

• credit to Samuel Taylor Coleridge – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner