I haven’t taken a bath in two years – Bongani Bingwa

Speaking about the nation’s looming water crisis and ways to avoid it on his 702 show this morning, breakfast host Bongani Bingwa claimed that he had not taken a bath in two years.

The radio and TV host prefers to take short showers instead and he advised his listeners to do the same in addition to a number of other water-saving tips.

This comes after the department of water and sanitation reported that dam levels across the country were dropping at “an alarming rate” week on week.

According to 702, dam levels have dropped by an alarming 4.8% from 73.2% to 68.4% in the past month and this trend has prompted the department to renew its calls for water users to conserve as much water as possible.

By 2030 South Africa will run out of water UNLESS we manage this precious resource. Dam levels have dropped due to the current heatwave – Gauteng is at risk – how bad is the looming crisis? Coming up #702Breakfast

— Bongani Bingwa IG/TikTok: Bonglez (@bonglez) December 10, 2018

Deputy director general for strategic and emergency projects at the department of water and sanitation, Trevor Balzer, claimed that “we use water way in excess of global averages… In South Africa we use about 237 litres per person per day compared to the global average of 172.”

@bonglez to help solve water crisis I install aerators that reduce water flow frm 12L/min to 3L/min compared to traditional stream flow water wasting taps and change water wasting toilet cisterns to the water conserving toilet cisterns

— #vuzosfki (@vkomsane) December 10, 2018

Balzer said there would be a serious deficit between supply and demand if citizens didn’t arrest their increasing water usage against available water.

If every South African with working taps at home halved their water consumption it would make not a jot of difference similarly with electricity this is a management and infrastructure problem. As usual 702 paper over the cracks and blame the public and not those responsible- ANC

— Stan Nington (@SNington) December 10, 2018

“We project that if we go on the ‘do nothing approach’ we could have a deficit in the order of 17%,” said Balzer.

“At a household level need to reduce our own water consumption and we need to be conscious about the way we use water. We need to look at using grey water for flushing the toilets… collect the bath water and the water for the shower.”

"Dirty" water should be used to flush toilets instead of clean water. In this way, the amount of water used per household is conserved.

— Mmina Tau (@MarogaKR) December 10, 2018

He also advised citizens to read their water meter every day to get a better idea of how much water they use in order to adjust their usage accordingly and detect anomalies in time.

https://twitter.com/populistmorons/status/1072007942302502912

Balzer went on to add that during load shedding, the pumps that had to fill the reservoirs couldn’t pump and as a result, those located downstream would have little to no water after a period of load shedding and this contributed to the problem.

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