[Event] Cape Town Cycle Tour 2018

[Skubarra]

Hey Skubarra - do you have a link to the new tariffs?

 

Cheers

 

This is where I saw it - don't know the full tarrifs

 

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/punitive-tariff-charge-will-force-capetonians-save-water-city-of-cape-town-12790068

[Icycling]

Erm. I've got bad news for you. You've been paying for that for years. If you have a prepaid meter you'll have a little line on the invoice called Aux. When I phoned the city of Cape Town the helpful lady told me that it was for streetlights.

They only installed street light in my area last year - so yes been paying for that for about a year - not sure how - but I just assumed as part of the rates for been in the area and surely water meter fall in this too? Not a separate charge!

[Icycling]

So, will there be a Southeaster?  

The wind certainly is in training today! It been a gale since last night at Killarney which was super hard! Maybe the wind is over training and would have "blown" by then!

[DJR]

The wind certainly is in training today! It been a gale since last night at Killarney which was super hard! Maybe the wind is over training and would have "blown" by then!

Yes I  also hope the pesky Cape Doctor peaks too soon ​ 

[Icycling]

Hmmm. If one follows the rainfall in the area, one would see that rainfall in the catchment areas has been much lower than in CT itself.

The TRUTH about the Western Cape "Drought" - it's NOT a dought, it's a failure to plan by Government!

This is an article by Mr. Stephen Irwin - Kirstenhof:

I am tired of being lied to by politicians. Such as Patricia de Lille banging on about this being the worst drought in 100 years, which to me did not ring true. So after considerable trouble, more on this later, I gathered the rainfall statistics for Theewaterskloof Dam back to 1975 as these were the most readily available. That dam represents 53% of the total storage and other dams would be quite similar.

This revealed the following annual rainfall statistics: highest 972mm in 1977, lowest 319mm in 2004. Average over past 32 years is 561mm.

Now, if you do a three-year running average, we get a figure of 485mm for the latest three years (507/420/529). Going back to 1975, we have the seven other years when the prior three-year running average was lower than now: 472mm in 2010/2011/2012; 479mm in 2009/2010/2011; 471mm in 2003/2004/2005; and 465mm 2002/2003/2004; 438mm in 1990/1991/1992; 465mm in 1982/1983/1984; and, the worst was 428mm in 1978/1979/1980. In those years we had, through proper planning, surplus storage.

The bad news is that the last two drought cycles lasted four years - this is only year three.

Drought implies a lack of rainfall, so this is nowhere near the worst drought and this is only going back 33 years, not 100.

What really we have is the worst water shortage (storage/person) in 100 years, if not of all time. We do not have too little water but too many people.

The politicians cannot say that, as that implies bad planning. It is far easier to blame Mother Nature or global warming.

You also cannot blame the experts as they know that there are no quick solutions and that you need to build reserve capacity well in advance of population growth.

Unfortunately, in 2007/8 they warned of future problems, but we had good rain in 2008 of 729mm; and they warned again in 2012/3, but again we had good rain in 2014 of 729mm.

This gave the politicians the excuse to divert the required funds to projects that pleased the electorate rather than on some vital, but boring, water project.

This has now come back to bite them in the backside and we should make sure they feel it.

Now this ex-socialist wants us to pay for their errors and then also, in some fascist manner, wants us to stop using aquifer water so they can pump it out and sell it back to us at some exorbitant rate. I feel a class-action lawsuit coming on.

Also, her banging on about the “new normal” is also patently untrue and dangerous, and this message will only drive away tourism and new industries, and may even cause existing ones to relocate.

That is a very expensive way to get the water-people ratio right.

I do not see the point of declaring an emergency and then sticking to bureaucratic red tape. Build the dam desalination plants already! If the ANC tries to prevent this, let them be the ones brave enough to seek a court interdict.

As mentioned above, getting rainfall statistics proved quite difficult, mainly due to the SA Weather Service's charge for this information at extremely heavy rates, with an undertaking that the information cannot be disseminated to others.

I find this quite disgusting that taxpayers are expected to pay for information collected at their expense.

Stephen Irwin

Kirstenhof

Picture below: new "Water & Sanitation" building being built on Voortrekker Road in Bellville. City of Cape Town finds it more necessary to spend over R100,000,000 on offices rather than dams and desalination plants! #DroughtLies #BadPlanningByGovernment

[DJR]

 

The TRUTH about the Western Cape "Drought" - it's NOT a dought, it's a failure to plan by Government!

This is an article by Mr. Stephen Irwin - Kirstenhof:................

Agreed, it is a problem of too many people and too little forward planning, BUT, is it not the responsibility of the NATIONAL department of Water Affairs to plan and build large water schemes? Not that the City Of Cape Town is completely innocent, they could have done a LOT more to reduce water use and wastage over the last decade or more. But no local city has the money, power or the expertise to research, plan, approve, fund, purchase land and build the kind of storage dam that is needed to supply large amounts of water. That must happen at a national level. (Lesotho Highland scheme as an example)

[Icycling]

Agreed, it is a problem of too many people and too little forward planning, BUT, is it not the responsibility of the NATIONAL department of Water Affairs to plan and build large water schemes? Not that the City Of Cape Town is completely innocent, they could have done a LOT more to reduce water use and wastage over the last decade or more. But no local city has the money, power or the expertise to research, plan, approve, fund, purchase land and build the kind of storage dam that is needed to supply large amounts of water. That must happen at a national level. (Lesotho Highland scheme as an example)

Water is the responsibility of National Goverment.

 

Now the DA are trying to find ways to get more money out of the Cape Town residence - not for water - but to pay their staff / commitment / wastage / corruption! They were getting "free income" from water but that "bitcoin" seems to be popping!

[Patchelicious]

Not a drought you say?

[cvancoillie]

 

The TRUTH about the Western Cape "Drought" - it's NOT a dought, it's a failure to plan by Government!

This is an article by Mr. Stephen Irwin - Kirstenhof:

 #DroughtLies #BadPlanningByGovernment

 

According to this study, the 2 year rainfall is a 1:1150 event.

http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2017/08/28/how-severe-is-this-drought-really/

[Kranswurm]

Not a drought you say?

Most Capetonians are in denial but I must admit..my family and friends really take the water conservation to heart.I could not live like that

I have lived for the last 26 years outside south Africa in various shitholes but never endured that

[DJR]

According to this study, the 2 year rainfall is a 1:1150 event.

http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2017/08/28/how-severe-is-this-drought-really/

Interesting. A real numbers-nerd look at it. So, he basically counted the beans drops and agrees with what most Capies figured out with intuition - that it is indeed dryer than we recall ever before.

[Icycling]

News out - Zuma decides not to go Liberia - probably because he is work out how much more he can get from our TAX before he is shown the door.

 

But is the water and sanitation minster the best choice - if she is at all concerned over the Western Cape water shortage?

 

Probably does not make any difference at it seems this department has been absent from the Western Cape for many year or National gov would have done more to secure water supply for this area - yes water is National Gov responsibility as stated higher in this thread.

 

http://www.enca.com/south-africa/zuma-no-longer-going-to-liberia

[andydude]

The wind certainly is in training today! It been a gale since last night at Killarney which was super hard! Maybe the wind is over training and would have "blown" by then!

Well done for yesterday [emoji106]

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Jase619]

Just under 7 weeks to go!!!! 

[Halfdoesyn]

Just under 7 weeks to go!!!! 

Argus or Day Zero?

[Harryn]

My flight is booked, but not my accommodation. To be honest, I really don’t know whether to book my hotel or not.