South African’s ignored the request to save at least 15% of water and now have to face the consequences.
“We are no longer appealing or encouraging you to save water. If you do not save water‚ you will be without water”. This from the City of Joburg (Johannesburg).
Areas like Midrand, Kyalami, Centurion and Soweto had no water over the weekend. Even South Africa’s biggest shopping mall, The Mall of Africa, run dry. Restaurant owners could not serve tea and coffee and had to rush to buy water not only to cook food but to wash dishes. In many cases public toilets had to be closed.
It is suspected that the “rich areas” like Westcliff, Waterfall, Houghton Estate and Dainfern were the direct cause of water cuts. The “rich” filling their swimming pools in times that Gauteng is experiencing a heatwave with temperatures reaching up to 36 degrees; this according to Johannesburg Water.
Laudium residents also saw their water turned off as they were using too much water during the first day of the Diwali festival, a Hindu festival which run over a period of 5 days.
According to the experts the main reason that attribute to the water crisis is climate change. Rains over the last couple of years has come infrequently and was not enough to fill the dams.
This made me think about the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014. I’m sure that most of you can still remember it. The challenge which encouraged nominated participants to be filmed, within 24 hours of being challenged, having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads. They then had to carry on by nominating others to participate and do the same.
Maybe we should introduce a new variant, “The Empty Bucket Challenge” as a reminder for South Africans to save that 15% by not filling their swimming pools, not to wash the cars with a hosepipe and not to water their gardens. But mainly, it is also a challenge for the world to think of others before they open a tap!
A challenge for us all to take a picture post it on Steemit and once done make sure it is on Facebook with a link to our Steemit posts. This way we will not only be spreading the word of saving water but also Steemit!
$10,000 can buy 22,307 bottles of water!
