Neighbours of some of Cape Town’s biggest water guzzlers say they are unfairly being painted with the same brush.
Many said they did a lot to conserve water and were being wrongfully labeled since the city published a list with their street names on Monday‚ as part of a bid to shame the municipality’s water wasters.
TMG Digital visited the streets of the top five water consumers and found a number of examples of both simple and innovative methods to save water.
One woman who lives on Haywood Road in Crawford‚ where the number one water consumer was listed‚ emptied her swimming pool and filled it with sand in an effort to save water.
Most of the homes in the middle-class suburb had paved yards‚ and where there was grass it was mostly dry or dead.
Saleem Gamza‚ a neighbour who claimed to know the man who was slapped with a R119 000 bill and the title of the city’s top guzzler‚ said that the list had inadvertently included all of the streets residents‚ which was “not fair“.
“[The City] have only hurt people. That’s all they have done‚” Gazma said.
On Hillwood Road and Norwich Drive in Bishop’s Court — home to two other top water guzzlers — most homes had boreholes which were used to water lush gardens and for numerous other uses.
Hillwood Road resident Jo Frater‚ who owns an acre of property there‚ said her latest water bill was only R114 despite up to 11 people living there.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody in our road is giving a bad name for the area‚ because a lot of us care very strongly about the environment and are trying our best to preserve the water that we have‚” said Frater.
Moegamad Robertson from Boundary Road in Lansdowne‚ where the city a claims one home used 557 000 litres of water in one month‚ said high bills in the area should be seen in the context of the number of families who shared a property.
“Most of these houses have four or more families living together as part of as cultural thing‚ and that could be the reason for high water bills‚” said Robertson. — TMG Digital
Why us? - angry Cape Town residents claim they've been unfairly tarred despite their efforts to conserve water
Neighbours of some of Cape Town’s biggest water guzzlers say they are unfairly being painted with the same brush.
Many said they did a lot to conserve water and were being wrongfully labeled since the city published a list with their street names on Monday‚ as part of a bid to shame the municipality’s water wasters.
TMG Digital visited the streets of the top five water consumers and found a number of examples of both simple and innovative methods to save water.
One woman who lives on Haywood Road in Crawford‚ where the number one water consumer was listed‚ emptied her swimming pool and filled it with sand in an effort to save water.
Most of the homes in the middle-class suburb had paved yards‚ and where there was grass it was mostly dry or dead.
Saleem Gamza‚ a neighbour who claimed to know the man who was slapped with a R119 000 bill and the title of the city’s top guzzler‚ said that the list had inadvertently included all of the streets residents‚ which was “not fair“.
“[The City] have only hurt people. That’s all they have done‚” Gazma said.
On Hillwood Road and Norwich Drive in Bishop’s Court — home to two other top water guzzlers — most homes had boreholes which were used to water lush gardens and for numerous other uses.
Hillwood Road resident Jo Frater‚ who owns an acre of property there‚ said her latest water bill was only R114 despite up to 11 people living there.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody in our road is giving a bad name for the area‚ because a lot of us care very strongly about the environment and are trying our best to preserve the water that we have‚” said Frater.
Moegamad Robertson from Boundary Road in Lansdowne‚ where the city a claims one home used 557 000 litres of water in one month‚ said high bills in the area should be seen in the context of the number of families who shared a property.
“Most of these houses have four or more families living together as part of as cultural thing‚ and that could be the reason for high water bills‚” said Robertson. — TMG Digital
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