Imtiaz Sooliman – Residents urged to lower demand
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss various issues affecting the provision of water in South Africa, including power cuts, heating, and loss of availability of drinking water. They acknowledge the challenges of water delivery and recycling, as well as the potential for burglaries and crimes related to power outages. The health and safety of people and homes is also addressed, including the health crisis affecting everyone and the need for more use of water. The speakers suggest implementing solutions such as solar panels and water tankers to alleviate the crisis, and sharing water and improving the health of people in certain areas is crucial.
AI: Summary ©
Well, the power cuts are having an impact on the provision of
adequate water supply in various parts of South Africa, residents
have been urged to lower their use of water to reduce pressure on
pump stations in areas such as Swami, for instance, gift of
forgiveness, founder, Dr India, Suleiman has worked to various
communities dealing with several water crises over the years, some
of which are linked to the power cuts. Dr Suleiman, a very good
evening to you grateful for your time as someone who has his eye on
the ground and is able to see when communities are struggling with
issues such as the provision reliable supply of basic drinking
water, how much has load shedding made things
worse? It causes it cause it has caused havoc. There's no other way
to explain it. It's caused havoc, and it's caused a flurry of calls
to our call centers, our teams, our officers, our call center is
just bombastic with what calls people saying, we have, we have a
water crisis. On Friday night was the first major issue we get.
Where we got the call from kakamas in the Northern Cape, and they
know we learned that seven people passed on. The additional factor
which is aggravating the situation is the intense heat in various
parts of the countries. So whether load shedding and the intense
heat, we find that water availability is substantially
reduced, either through evaporation or non delivery, and
in many cases, there is water it just can't be delivered because of
the prolonged load shedding hours. The reservoirs can't get full. And
when they're not full, the pumping system or the municipality fails.
So there's a failure on the one side. Secondly, you think you have
an alternative, you have balls, but many people have those
boreholes on Eskom also. So because the load shedding effects,
those bores of balls cannot function. Then the municipalities
were trying really hard to deliver water in tankers. Don't have
enough tankers. And the next problem we have is that, because
the water empty is so fast, they can't wait for people to take it
from a truck, which means many communities will not get water. So
they've asked for help for putting up JoJo tanks. And again, that's
not enough. We've helped with water tankers, boreholes, Georgia
tanks, bottled water. The old the elderly, the old age homes is a
problem. The physically and mentally challenged is a problem.
The school toilet Stop function is a problem. So yes, to answer your
question, load shedding has called havoc. You mentioned the issue of
even schools being affected by these water disruptions that then
poses a risk, as it not, of other outbreaks of water related
diseases, if a situation is not remedied immediately.
Yes, whether you know, when we were busy involved in Quebec in
May, that's another major problem, that city is in serious trouble.
You know, the dam levels are averaging about 7% collectively.
So they in serious trouble. And when we were there in May, putting
in 45 boreholes, the school's principles, relating to your
question. Said directly, we can survive without drinking water,
but we can't survive without sanitation. We can't send our
children to school. If the school sanitation system doesn't work, we
have an outbreak of infection, and then you need to send the people
for infection to clinics and hospitals, but the clinics and
hospitals also affected. Many procedures have stopped. Many
areas are non functional because of the huge amount of many hours
that water cuts take place, and because you can't diminish the
system in time before the next color training stepped in, there's
a problem with the schools, the clinics and hospitals. And the
other thing is, when you die, you know you to be buried with
dignity, and funeral homes or funeral pals have been calling
because they have been affected. They can't wash their bodies till
the water.
We were speaking earlier to a security expert, who was saying,
The other concern now is that we're likely to see an increase in
crimes such as burglaries, even hijackings in some communities,
because even criminals are now starting to seize on, especially
the longer, more extended periods of these power outages.
Well, that's already happening, you know, that's, you know, in
many areas, because we had a burglary, let's why go far, we had
a burglar league in our own offices, simply because of load
shedding. The dalam batteries died, and, you know, it was just
immediately after the school of holidays, and we hadn't installed
inverters yet. But how many people can install inverters? You know,
it's a big question. So yes, the electricity, the load shedding, is
affecting security systems. It's affecting security and lighting at
night in streets and homes, it becomes a high risk to get into
your own driveway, to drive down the street at night, so that is a
great additional risk with load shedding
and holding for instance, you've got load shedding. You've got
issues around water supply, which is also exacerbated by load
shedding. You've got currently a heat wave. Some areas are still
dealing with drought conditions.
Is health coming fast enough and in large enough quantities?
No doubt, is not coming fast enough. The health is based on the
existing model of trying to make best use of what's available.
Again, there's several factors, you know, affecting this, that the
number of people in areas are now more desperate for water because
of the heat, so they need more water in a shorter time period,
the walls are not functioning, which means there's lots less
water available to go to more areas. And again, it's because the
municipal pipes and infrastructure are not working. The reservoir is
not pumping, so you need the same amount of water, plus more because
of the heat, but your delivery system is substantially curtailed
because of all the specters that I've had just mentioned to you,
there are solutions, and the immediate solution, of course, is
to start putting solar panels on all the balls and all the balls
that organizations have drilled or the municipalities have drilled,
or individual People have put in their homes or in their farmlands,
they need to put solar panels. And in addition to putting the solar
panels on, it's a call to the entire country that those of you
do this, please share your water. So you know what? Everybody who
needs it, people who take water, we need to save and not be
wasteful. But I can't even say they're wasting water because they
need not getting the water to waste in the first place. So, you
know, whatever water is available, we need to share that. And
especially think of the old people who can't walk the water tankers.
The third thing is, you know, we need more water tankers. We need
more Georgia tanks. And to be honest, if 300 million Rand is
made available, we can drill boreholes in all the important
areas of the affected communities in the country. Put the solar
panels, put the Georgia tanks, and we can make a huge difference. But
this thing costs money. We've already drilled more than 500
balls. And remember, we also supplying the animals. A culture
is affected. Farming is affected, GDP is affected, jobs are
affected.
And whichever way you look at it, Doctor, this is a crisis that
affects disproportionately South Africans who earn less or
especially the poorest of the poor. As you were just mentioning,
costs associated with the installation of solar panels. You
look at people inability to get inverter systems, for example. You
look at security, private security, and the alternatives
around that for those who fear that crime could spike as a result
of the energy crisis, and in that situation, it is still the people
who are already so poor before the situation who will suffer most.
That's That's enormous trend that goes happens in any country,
unfortunately, and that's the reality and effect of life. The
poor people suffer. No electricity, no water. Difficult
schooling, difficult health services, difficulty in transport.
The cost goes up even now to get water, they pay people. People to
exploit the situation. An old person is best to pay a young
person 10 Rand to collect the water from them. People deliver
water which is infected. It's dirty to pay for up to 400 Rand
for that infected water. So unfortunately, we have
opportunists. We have no compassion, you know, we have no
ethics, we have no spirituality or prey on those in difficult
situations. And what can people do in this desperate times? But as I
said, Let's put the balls in those who have it, put the solar panels.
Let's share the system, and maybe, as look at the way in certain
areas, they can't read everywhere. I mean, they're also about a
crisis where we can maybe take the pressure of certain reservoirs
throughout the country so we have less pressure, at least some water
functional in some municipalities in some parts of the country.
Founder of the gift of the givers.