The Cape Town Water Crisis Coalition will hold a protest gathering on Sunday to voice their anger at the city’s mismanagement of its water shortage that could result in the South African city being the first in the world to run dry.
Cape Town last week drastically cut water restrictions again from 87 litres per person per day to 50 litres, about two-and-a-half standard buckets, as it continues to struggle with a three-year-long drought due to a lack of rains that traditionally filled catchment areas.
The protest will take on Sunday at 2.30pm outside the Cape Town Civic Centre but the Coalition has called on all supporters to form human chains under the slogan “Water is Life” in their own communities.
Meanwhile, The SA First Forum, a South African citizens’ protest group, has called for City of Cape Town authorities to be removed and says Western Cape provincial government has failed to manage the city’s water shortage effectively.
Cape Town has ramped up water restrictions which come into effect from 1 February. Residents will be allowed to use 50 litres per person per day --about two-and-a-half standard buckets -- down from the current 87 litres allowed.
This, as the city, continues to struggle with a three-year-long drought due to a lack of rains that traditionally filled catchment areas.
“We demand that there be accountability and consequences for this monumental mismanagement of the water situation in Cape Town,” the group said in a statement issued late Tuesday.
“We feel that a credible and competent group of people be appointed as the “Administrator” to diligently take charge and find a solution to the problem that has been coming on for a long while,” it said.
The #SA1st Forum also called for a civil society-led Water Summit to be held where solutions to the water crisis can be considered. “Out of the box thinking is required to ensure there is a credible plan to the water crisis that all sectors of society can buy into,” the forum said.
- African News Agency (ANA)
