Share

Treason: the fight for water

BETWEEN the jagged mountain range of the Cape Peninsula and the wall of mountains that you must cross to reach the Karoo, there’s a flat and almost featureless plain, the Cape Flats. In winter, many parts of it turn into semi vleis, pans of water that glint when sun briefly pierces the grey cloud cover.

Some of that water evaporates, of course, but much of it sinks away into the sandy soil, trickling down into the many aquifers that lie beneath the Flats, insurance against times of drought and water scarcity.

Thirty years ago, crossing the Flats in winter had an ominous feel. The plain stretched out on either side of the road, vast and wild and empty. Today, much of the Flats has been developed, formally or informally. Only a few unbuilt-on patches of land remain, where water can still collect to recharge the aquifers.

As in many other parts of the country, a stretch of land that evolved over millennia into a natural water catchment has been built over, paved and tarred, so that precious water runs away, at best lost to humans, animals and plants, at worst scouring away crucial topsoil in flash floods.

One of those ‘undeveloped’ patches is the 3000 hectares of the Philippi Horticultural Area (the PHA), which sits atop an important aquifer. About half of it is still wild land, while the other 1 500 hectares are intensively cultivated by growers large and small, providing some 6 000 jobs and yielding upwards of 150 000 tonnes of vegetables and flowers every year. (Thanks to the aquifer, farmers can harvest year-round even when the rest of Cape Town is sponge-bathing and praying for rain. Farmers know and understand the limits of the underground aqua-treasure available to them, as Dr Jane Battersby-Lennard and Gareth Haysom note in their 2012 publication, Philippi Horticultural Area A City asset or potential development node?

But the City of Cape Town has recently decided to allow development (houses, a private prison and mining for silicone, among other things) on the PHA; this will affect more than a 1 000 hectares, some directly over the major aquifer area. “They paved paradise, put up a parking lot,” as Joni Mitchell sang. Never mind the loss of vital open green space accessible to people in neighbouring disadvantaged urban areas; never mind the loss of much-needed jobs; this is a short-sighted move in terms of the potential for compromising what is left of the hydrological cycle that naturally operates in the Cape Flats.

Is now – as the city teeters on the brink of a climate-change related disaster – a good time to make irreparable changes with potentially negative outcomes, such as reduced recharge and inevitable leaching of pollutants into the aquifer?

As you move away from the city into the Western Cape agricultural areas, the temperature gradient moves steadily upwards. By the time you reach Tulbagh, future daytime temperatures are predicted to be an agriculture-unfriendly 34-37degrees (page 31, Battersby-Lennard and Haysom); should the city not consider preserving the PHA as a kind of food crop insurance?

In the last week, we’ve heard a lot of bluster and rhetoric in the political space about “treason” and the betrayal of the revolution ("The DA is the enemy of the revolution and as such supporting its motion is treasonous,” Ricardo Mthembu said.

The pettifogging fights over power and status inside and outside of parliament fade into insignificance when you step back and take a long look at what really matters to this country: water, fertile soil, a liveable temperature for people, plants and livestock. Yet they get short shrift from the politicians. Where is the political focus, the political will to protect our most vital resources from changes that cannot be undone and could prove disastrous?

In this country, some “50% of the volume of water in SA’s river systems comes from run-off from land covering only 8% of the country’s total surface area”. Yet, who fought off a threat to a vital water catchment area recently?

Ground was about to be broken in the Mabola protected area in Enkangala by an Indian-owned mining company, despite the fact that the region is “the source of four major rivers – the Pongola, Tugela, Vaal and Usutu – which support huge communities and economic activities downstream. Enkangala supplies water to South Africa’s economic hub, Gauteng, and is an important source for the agricultural sector in the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces.”

It was civil society that fought government to win a reprieve for the area, a coalition of eight NGOs, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights.

Why do we have to fight our own government to protect these vital resources? We have no room to manoeuvre as far as water is concerned in this country, no spare capacity. We have to make the most effective use of what we’ve got; yet our municipal sewage system is collapsing in the majority of towns, and 50 000 litres of untreated sewage water apparently flows into our rivers every second.

Tell me, what’s more treasonous: voting against a captured president, or allowing the country’s water to be wasted, polluted and lost? I want rid of this corrupt bunch, for sure; but I want them replaced by people who care more about our most precious resources, without which we can’t breathe, eat, and live, than about short-term and short-sighted goals.

* Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.

Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter:

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
19.04
-0.7%
Rand - Pound
23.98
-0.4%
Rand - Euro
20.53
-0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.36
-0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.7%
Platinum
894.10
-0.3%
Palladium
996.00
-0.6%
Gold
2,194.02
-0.0%
Silver
24.42
-0.9%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
67,905
+0.3%
All Share
74,106
+0.3%
Resource 10
56,200
+1.0%
Industrial 25
103,604
+0.3%
Financial 15
16,488
-0.2%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders