Imtiaz Sooliman – Residents urged to lower demand

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.