Two Bits – 26 June 2015

What is all the fuss about using recycled water?
Sheffield resident Cecil Gore makes a very good point (see Letters) that the water you drink every day has come from the Greytown/New Hanover area, flowed through long distances of rural countryside where people, cows and sheep have washed and conducted their business in it, eventually emptying into Hazelmere Dam. From there it is cleaned and treated and piped to your tap.
I have been drinking tap water my whole life and have never had a problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the water in this country. It might taste a bit odd – I never did get used to Joburg water, drank beer instead – but it’s perfectly alright. They say ‘Maritzburg water, for example, is so clean you can pour it straight into your car battery.
Can’t say the same for the rest of the world. I contracted dysentery from the water in Afghanistan in the 70s and that was no joke. When we backpacked around South America we were well warned of the possibility of contracting hepatitis from the water, and met some travellers who had been hospitalised. The solution to that was to put a drop of iodine in every two litres of tap water and everything was fine.
But getting back to local, Siza is conducting an online survey to gauge residents’ reactions to using recycled water. It would be our waste water, cleaned and refined back to drinking standard.
I asked Siza PRO Khosi Matenjwa if she’d drunk it herself and she said “Yes, I’ve had three glasses already. It tastes fine.”
Some Ballito residents have told me they are absolutely against using recycled water. I hope they don’t get their way.
Even if I did feel a bit icky about the thought of drinking it, I am going to want water in the house to flush the toilets, washing and so on. The last thing I want to do is trudge up the road to a water tanker to collect buckets of water – like many communities have to do. Buy a water filter if you feel uneasy – they’re cheap enough.
We have 60 days and counting down to the point that Hazelmere runs dry, if it doesn’t rain hard soon, so we as a community have to make a decision about using recycled water. Go onto the Siza website, enter your account number and vote yes. It’s the right thing to do.
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The only one who can make it rain is God, and prayer is what is needed right now. To that end there will be prayers for rain at the Litchi Orchard this coming Monday from 5pm.
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Ballito mother Kim Grobler tells me of a Facebook/BBM scam that parents should warn their children about.
“My 22-year-old daughter saw an ad on Facebook today from ‘Mr Price’ asking for models for new billboards and advertising etc, paying R8 000 for three hours. Upon her contacting the person via BBM she was asked to send a photo of herself, which she did. Almost immediately she received a response saying the ‘manager’ was very interested in her and she was to please send further photos of herself posing in just her underwear via BBM.”
Kim’s son smelled a rat and told his sister “no ways”. The family are disgusted and shocked by the brazen manner of the approach and warn other families to be on the lookout.
Apparently there are similar ads appearing in the name of a well known agency, ‘Ice Models’, but they are also undoubtedly scams as no reputable modelling agency would go this route, Kim believes.
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Speaking of modelling, tomorrow night I will (again) be one of the lucky judges in the first round of choosing semi-finalists for the Miss Ballito contest. I hear there are some great entrants and we’ll bring you some photos next week.
The semi-finalists will also be modelling during the Coastal Bru events at La Montagne next week. Coastal Bru is the ‘food and wine’ section of the Ballito Pro surf festival, which kicks off this Sunday and runs right through next week.
The official Ballito Pro v20.15 presented by Billabong magazine will be available locally later this week, in shopping centres and door-to-door in the Ballito/Salt Rock area.
What a busy July holiday it’s going to be – the win-a-pool competition, the Ballito Pro, Coastal Bru and the start of Miss Ballito! Great stuff.
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I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high.
She looked surprised.