Two Bits – 17 July 2015

In every community there are a handful of people who seem to do everything. In the public space specifically, that is, not talking about business. Year after year they plug away at projects that other people applaud, but don’t want to do.

A dozen or more years ago now, a woman started standing up at municipal and public meetings, every time asking the same question: “What is being done about the water supply?” Everyone else looked at one another and asked: “What about the water supply? Who is this woman?”

This person who had sprung up out of nowhere and inserted herself in the affairs of the body public, at least in matters relating to the environment and water supply, was Di Jones. A Salt Rock housewife, no known qualifications in hydrology or environmental matters, or politicial connections, just driven by a passion for improving the environment. She formed the local conservancy and buttonholed anyone and everyone who might further her cause, from the mayor to the streetsweeper.

She will be embarrassed at being mentioned here because, despite being a bulldog about matters environmental, she is quite reserved, almost retiring, by nature. I mention her because she spotted a flaw in the backdrop of our paradise a decade before anyone else and yes, that rip in the fabric has become a gaping hole that threatens our long-term future.

Hazelmere Dam, some five kilometres inland of Verulam, was built in 1976 and is the Dolphin Coast’s sole water source. We bumbled along nicely for the next 30 years as a couple of hundred square kilometres of waving sugarcane and the small towns of Verulam, Tongaat and Ballito. No water problem. The 1987 flood was a flash flood that washed so much mud into Hazelmere that its capacity was reduced by 10 percent – but still no problem.

The growth of the region started with the shift of Durban northwards – the development of Gateway and then the residential estates of Zimbali, Simbithi and others. The kicker was King Shaka airport, that’s when people really started flooding in. The population of the region has doubled or trebled in 30 years, but the dam remained the same size.

All using millions and millions of litres of water every day. And where was it coming from? Still Hazelmere.

Plans to raise the wall by seven metres and so double the size of the dam were approved long ago and the new wall was supposed to be finished last September. Didn’t happen. Why, nobody knows. But that’s a symptom of dysfunctional government and not helpful to our present problem, of running out of water in less than 50 days.

And don’t say you didn’t know! Local government and Siza Water have been taking full page ads in every paper in the region since last December, pleading with people to save water. Posters on the street poles. Some people did take notice and did cut their water usage. But the majority did not.

So how do you get people’s attention? Hit them where it hurts, in the wallet. When the fines went out to all and sundry last week people were screaming “You can’t do that, we didn’t know!” What rubbish. Where had they been these last seven months? Mars?

What was applied was the short, sharp, shock. Now they have everyone’s attention. Yaah, the mayor and Misra looked like they backed down in the face of public pressure by postponing the fines, but they caved too easily. I think they had that one up their sleeves all along. They’d made their point and that was enough.

Perhaps this regional crisis will spur government to push the dam expansion project along, perhaps it will spur local government to try and track down all the leaks in our water systems, but the real lesson has to be: what are you doing to ensure your water safety in the future? Not government, not anyone else. You.

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I never wanted to believe that my dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.