Watering fields in water crisis
With Newcastle in the grip of drought, fingers have been pointed at the municipality, its staff seen ‘flooding’ the Paradise C grounds on Tuesday morning.
Is the municipality following its own advice?
With Newcastle in the grip of drought, fingers have been pointed at the municipality, its staff seen ‘flooding’ the Paradise C grounds on Tuesday morning.
This is not the first complaint of water ‘abuse’ by the municipality.
A number of residents reported employees watering green belts in the CBD over the past few months, despite cautionary SMSes to residents in light of pending shortages.
However, the maintenance of the C grounds has been defended by officials.
Mayor, Afzul Rehman said, “The grass going brown will be more costly to revive. I think we should be able to restrict it to certain times a week.”
Head of Parks, Recreation and Cleansing, Vish Govender said it was normal procedure to ‘flood’ the pitch and then roll it.
An on-site meeting to discuss the usability of the field is set for this week.
In the meantime, cricketers have stated the C grounds are impossible to use for matches, not until recommended measures are taken to restore damage to the surface.
“We are unsure if the field will ever be used for cricket again. They will need to build a whole new pitch first,” explained Quentin Ferreira.
A senior cricket administrator confirmed the ‘flooding’ of the pitch was not a technique known to him, noting the pitch has been re-marked as a soccer turf.
Investigation showed watering a pitch was more common for soccer fields.
According to online surveys, a football pitch normally requires about 20 millimetres of water every few days.
