While the Transkei area may look so beautifully green, there apparently is very little water deep down in the ground (yeah yeah… I am fcking exhausted post UNISA-deadlines & I ain’t a geologist…get over my non-tech terminology). This is a big problem in these areas… to get one’s hands on enough water for yourself, your family, the vegetable gardens, animals etc.
While we were bouncing about rural southern KZN roads, I was asking our local guides what the deal then was about how these communities obtained water.
Apparently water trucks come around every once in awhile – two weeks or once a month sort of thing. They fill up the reservoirs. Et Voila! Water for the community. Of course at a hefty cost… transport to such areas don’t come cheap.
Here’s “the rub”. During the rainy season, the roads become mud quagmires. The trucks can’t get through and so the people cannot obtain their substantial amounts of water for the next while.
Water Water Everywhere, And every drop can be drunk.
I asked these guiding ladies why on earth the people did not have Rain Water Tanks. Hell, every Eastern Cape I have known used to rely on their water resources through these things, until about ….yesterday actually. It’s a simple backwards kinda province like that If you can’t bore your way to water, then collect it from the sky, and as a LAST RESORT, trust municipalities to get to you.
The ladies did not have answers for me.
I was discussing this with my “maid”/ second mom/ source of all info about that which is semi-rural in SA. She said it is the same deal in her Polokwane area. They rely on the water trucks. They must pay HEAVY amounts for this water. (How much did you pay in your lovely suburbs the other day?) And off a household member goes to the reservoir on a certain day between certain times to collect your month’s water in your buckets.
In these communities, many households are based around the general “grandmother looking after the kids, while the mothers and fathers are working their impoverished butts off in places like Jozi”. Grandma can’t be carrying heavy containers, so the kids are trusted to get the water. These kids are meant to be at school the day that is their community’s water collection. They are forced to choose: Either miss school and education or Miss the water truck and your household will not have water for a few weeks to a month.
Sometimes, it’s the comprehensive planning that I love about government administrations.
So why not rain water tanks?
My maid is aiming on buying one. It costs R2000. Hardly an easy penny in such hard-up areas. [Hey! There’s a social development initiative you can start…. Provide each household of poor areas with rain water tanks. Simple, yet so so beneficial.]
And once the dear lady purchases this, she can tell her bureaucratic crazy municipality, who are so inept and apparently so corrupt that they cannot even provide household water or electricity, to go and drown themselves in their own expensive water.
….I might be grumpy today.
While we were bouncing about rural southern KZN roads, I was asking our local guides what the deal then was about how these communities obtained water.
Apparently water trucks come around every once in awhile – two weeks or once a month sort of thing. They fill up the reservoirs. Et Voila! Water for the community. Of course at a hefty cost… transport to such areas don’t come cheap.
Here’s “the rub”. During the rainy season, the roads become mud quagmires. The trucks can’t get through and so the people cannot obtain their substantial amounts of water for the next while.
Water Water Everywhere, And every drop can be drunk.
I asked these guiding ladies why on earth the people did not have Rain Water Tanks. Hell, every Eastern Cape I have known used to rely on their water resources through these things, until about ….yesterday actually. It’s a simple backwards kinda province like that If you can’t bore your way to water, then collect it from the sky, and as a LAST RESORT, trust municipalities to get to you.
The ladies did not have answers for me.
I was discussing this with my “maid”/ second mom/ source of all info about that which is semi-rural in SA. She said it is the same deal in her Polokwane area. They rely on the water trucks. They must pay HEAVY amounts for this water. (How much did you pay in your lovely suburbs the other day?) And off a household member goes to the reservoir on a certain day between certain times to collect your month’s water in your buckets.
In these communities, many households are based around the general “grandmother looking after the kids, while the mothers and fathers are working their impoverished butts off in places like Jozi”. Grandma can’t be carrying heavy containers, so the kids are trusted to get the water. These kids are meant to be at school the day that is their community’s water collection. They are forced to choose: Either miss school and education or Miss the water truck and your household will not have water for a few weeks to a month.
Sometimes, it’s the comprehensive planning that I love about government administrations.
So why not rain water tanks?
My maid is aiming on buying one. It costs R2000. Hardly an easy penny in such hard-up areas. [Hey! There’s a social development initiative you can start…. Provide each household of poor areas with rain water tanks. Simple, yet so so beneficial.]
And once the dear lady purchases this, she can tell her bureaucratic crazy municipality, who are so inept and apparently so corrupt that they cannot even provide household water or electricity, to go and drown themselves in their own expensive water.
….I might be grumpy today.
2 comments:
Nope - think you have every right to be angry.
so, companies like coke should sponsor them, and brand them.
Even one very large one for a couple of houses.
You are clever blogger.
Ooo, also a good idea. We might be onto something here!
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