Is "Day Zero" real?

People are wondering if "Day Zero" is real or if it is a fabrication by our politicians to raise prices by 500% in two years.

Here is my answer:

Water needs to have a real value. And people need to realise that Water is an essential fact of life. If we want to be alive next week, we need good quality, healthy, living (oxygenated), water.

Day Zero has only been pushed out if it rains (on time). It is still very much a reality.

Hundreds of thousands of people are installing rainwater tanks.

Almost everyone is using a grey water system, ie recycling shower water for their toilets and washing-up water for their gardens.

Some people are installing systems to make ground water clean either only for garden and swimming pool use or even making the ground water potable.

Some people have installed systems to make their swimming pool water drinkable. This makes their swimming pools into reservoirs. And it is much healthier too. Oxygenated water is much more healthy than chlorinated water. These reservoirs don't have any chlorine in them.

Free-riders in a community are normally 60% of the community. e.g. in Milnerton, only about 40% of people are members of the Milnerton Crime Watch. We pay for two cars that run 24 hours per day and now we have a cyclist as well. The other 60% effectively get this service free of charge. The same goes for the police service. 3 million taxpayers pay for this service. The rest of the country get this "for free".

And water is no different.

But just as we got to the point of having no electricity load shedding, so we will get to the point of having no water load shedding.

Of-course, 10x price increases in electricity over five years and 500x increases in water costs over two years, has meant that government has said to everyone "look for alternatives and try not to use our services". I'm guessing that government isn't stupid. At some point their huge price increases will mean that we won't need their services, as is normal in all service providers. At this point, government becomes irrelevant. e.g. we don't need their electricity, we don't need their water, we don't need their food, we don't need their education, we don't need their transport services; the list goes on.

One way government can start bring us back into their fold is to reduce water and other government induced pricing.

Another way is for government to provide the water and electricity and services that a well run city needs. For example, a well run city in California allows its citizens 400 litres per person per day. Before the drought Capetonians were using 150 litres per person per day, and wondering why there is so much unemployment, etc.

And the minimum quantity of water required in a city with waterborne sewerage is 87 litres per person per day. Asking us to us 50 litres per person per day is a crime!

We didn't design our city systems. Planners and architects and politicians did. We live in these cities and try to do our best with what we have. At some point the City of Cape Town needed to say "we will get to 87 litres of water per person per day within two years, ... and then we will need to ensure that our water augmentation schemes are in place."

Water is an abundant resource on our finite planet. Some with energy. With food, etc.

It is just that we have been brainwashed (socialised) into believing that water and electricity and food and internet time is scarce, whereas in fact it is almost infinite.

And we have also been brainwashed into believing that we need cars and computers and other appliances and computer games and holidays etc, whereas in order to be alive next week, we need a good healthy environment (air), a safe place to sleep and stay (security), a good water source, and a good food source.

Being alive next week should be our highest priority. Everything else should be subservient to this goal.