No chatter about Capetown?

[Noah930]

I tell my kids, one day we will fight wars for clean water.

[varmint]

Why do these shortages always happen in places run by leftists?

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by varmint

Why do these shortages always happen in places run by leftists?

Wichita Falls, Tx.(pop. 100,000) was within a year of shutting down. It is not a leftist city.

[vash]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

We should all move to the PNW and live at the foot of volcanos, or to the midwest Mississippi flood plain, or to New Orleans below seal level, or anywhere on the gulf or Atlantic coast where they have hurricanes, or to any one of the many states in tornado alley, and so on.
All those other places would be better than the forest or coast.

As soon as we stop paying off victims from all those natural disasters we can focus on the problems in Kalifornia.

i honestly cannot think of a single place safe 100%..not if i count killer bees!!

[Cajundaddy]

We were in Capetown back in Oct. and heavy water restrictions were in place. The combination of a highly corrupt/inept leadership and a culture of civil disobedience that held over from apartheid days has led to this. In the townships they routinely steal electricity and internet ahead of the meter while allowing community water taps to overflow and run down the street.

I expect they will just make it to the rainy season this year but have to keep moving forward with reliable sources of fresh water to meet the need. It is a beautiful area that reminds me of La Jolla CA so I hope they work it out.

[fred cook]

The answer to all of these situations is to have someone or several someones that know what they are doing do a growth/utilities need forecast, do a staged cost estimate, develop a growth plan that is realistic and fund it. Take the politics and the graft out and do the job. Ok, I know that goes against human instincts, but that's what it takes. Otherwise, when the SHTF, only the strong will survive. Anything less is doomed to fail. Someday a scientist will look at the abandoned metropolis' and compare them to the Inca and Mayan ruins. On the bright side, Stephen Hawking has forecast that in 600-1000 years, the earth will be consumed when the sun burns out and fries everything in the immediate area! Be sure to bring the marshmallows!

[vash]

bottom line. i wish the people over there the best damn luck EVER!!

[sammyg2]

one flush a day? Ewwwww.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by vash

i honestly cannot think of a single place safe 100%..not if i count killer bees!!

Zackly. There is always gonna be some sort of threat no matter where we live.

Even the places that don't have fires or earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes can get buried in snow after a killer storm.

But, as one of the previous posters was alluding too, no sense tempting the hand of fate.
Iffn you build your house on stilts sitting on the edge of a cliff on an earthquake fault, you run a higher risk of getting all kilt and your insurance should be really high to cover that higher risk. And it is.

BUT...... it gets all catee-wompus when the gubmint starts calling everything a national disaster with all sorts of federal relief moneys and interest free loans and such. that takes the risk away from the guy on the cliff and gives it to the taxpayers who live down on the flatland like me.

So what do we do? Do we tell the folks in tejas that it's their fault they had a hurricane and flood and that they are on their own? No we do not.
Do we tell the folks in wine country sorry you got all burned up but that's what insurance is for, deal with it? No we do not.

We do not because we are a compassionate people deep down, and we also know that some day it could be our turn in the barrel.

But we could pass a stilt law that says if you go too far and are really askin for it, you don't get as much help. I'd prolly support that.

[vash]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

We do not because we are a compassionate people deep down, and we also know that some day it could be our turn in the barrel.

.

this is about right..all part of Team Human. i'm glad there are avenues of assistance. it would suck to be held out to dry just because you like trees..or the ocean.

[Bill Douglas]

They should have got their desalination plants in order long time ago.

A much bigger city, Sydney, has successfully done it for decades.

[Por_sha911]

But, as one of the previous posters was alluding too, no sense tempting the hand of fate.
Iffn you build your house on stilts sitting on the edge of a cliff on an earthquake fault, you run a higher risk of getting all kilt and your insurance should be really high to cover that higher risk. And it is.

BUT...... it gets all catee-wompus when the gubmint starts calling everything a national disaster with all sorts of federal relief moneys and interest free loans and such. that takes the risk away from the guy on the cliff and gives it to the taxpayers who live down on the flatland like me.

There are risks wherever you live. I live in a place where there are tornado risks. My homeowners insurance is priced accordingly. As the above poster stated, the problem is when you expect the govt to fund your high risk decisions. If you live in a normally dry area and didn't understand the risk and moved there anyway then I feel bad for them that they weren't properly informed. If you built in a remote spot in the middle of a forest then you should have known better and pay for the risk with higher homeowners insurance and not expect taxpayers to bail you out when naturally occurring fires break out.

Think about it. Smoke cigarettes? Your life insurance rates are higher (and should be for health insurance too). Are you a professional race car driver? Your insurance rates will be higher as well. You chose the high risk things. Pay the high risk prices to cover yourself.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Noah930

I tell my kids, one day we will fight wars for clean water.

This is going to be the case in the middle east. Everyone thought oil was the precious commodity but there is a lot of tension over water already.

[Danimal16]

California has numerous options. First operate the State Water Project and the CVA per the original design. Recycled water in the South will extend EXISTING supplies by 40%. The history of water in California is one of profound ingenuity subsequently being destroyed by uniformed emotion.

[Vipergrün]

California needs to cancel that damn bullet train to nowhere and build de-sal plants throughout the whole coast. Not to PARF this up, but too bad the idiots in our State government are too wrapped up in ignorance and special interests to do anything about it.

[cstreit]

How are there energy costs?

Homemade distillation/de-sal plants not possible? If I lived there I think I would be seriously working on this....

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by cstreit

How are there energy costs?

Homemade distillation/de-sal plants not possible? If I lived there I think I would be seriously working on this....

They work in Baja if you live RIGHT on the coast, lots of homes have them

[Willem Fick]

Guys, don't ever underestimate the stupidity of government.

You have a situation in Cape Town where the city (and the province for that matter), is not run by the ruling party, the African National Congress. The area has historically had little water, but due to the economic failures in the rest of the country, run by the ANC, there has been a massive influx of people over the past twenty years, that has stretched resources to critical levels.

The real problem is that major water infrastructure is the responsibility of an absolutely inept national government, who have been far too busy looting to devote even a fraction of their time to a problem that doesn't affect their support base. As a result of this we have in the past year had several rural towns run dry, and a major city that is about to run dry. It is beyond a crisis, yet this was only grudgingly declared a national disaster in the past two weeks.

In addition we have a national minister of water affairs that is absolutely clueless. She has cancelled various infrastructure upgrades and extensions in the last few years, has de-funded water treatment and recovery plants, and has on occasion shown her complete ignorance (stupidity), by going as far as publicly stating that:

"You must have heard, from one source or another, how South Africa will 'run out of water' in 2013, 2015, 2025, or 2030, depending on which news source you rely on. Let me assure you, as the custodian of water resources in this country, that as we enter the third decade of equity and redistribution, South Africa will not run out of water in the next 100 years." (2014)

Another piece of wonderful government logic:

"You (the "apartheid" government) built the dams too big , so they take a long time to fill. You should have built them smaller, they would fill quicker and we would have plenty of water and never run out."

As for the way forward;

There are several desalination plants in the pipeline for Cape Town, with a view that the first of these will come online towards the middle of the year. In addition extensive work is done on trying to tap the underground aquifers in the area. The big game in town is now to see if that water reserves can be stretched to last until these are brought into operation, hence the draconian water restrictions that are in place. Sadly, human nature is a challenge, and only about 50% of the city's inhabitants are at this point making the target of 50 liters per day.

Thankfully I don't live in Cape Town, though a fair number of my family members do. I believe it is tough. My parents are on their way to visit as we speak, and as opposed to the normal gifts and pleasantries, they have been asked to rather bring as much water as they can...

[LeRoux Strydom]

I own property in Cape Town and 2 of my kids live there.

The situation is fairly serious, but there has been a lot of scaremongering as well. The so-called "day zero" when the taps will run dry has been announced as being somewhere in April since late last year. By some voodoo magic last week, day zero has been pushed back to July, which is in the middle of the rain season in the Western Cape.

The situation is what you get when politicians of different parties in different government spheres interfere with the management of critical services. Water supply management has not kept up with population growth, hence the focus on conservation until the supply catches up.

BTW, other major cities around the world have had similar water issues, viz. Barcelona, Sao Paolo, Bangalore, Beijing, even London is on a watchlist.

[ckelly78z]

In my Northern Ohio town, we have the opposite problem as Capetown. Every time it rains 2-3" we get a massive flood that seems to go nowhere for several days. Too many times in the last few years, this has virtually shut a town of 60,000 down because of flooded streets.

All kinds of government feasability studies, meetings, failed engineering plans, and public outcry for the last 10-15 years, and still nothing has improved.

The politicians all point fingers at the other party, declaring non-cooperation, greedy contract rewarding, and lack of tax money to accomplish anything.....in this respect, it is very similar to the situation in South Africa, all kinds of people jumping up and down demanding something be done, and nothing getting accomplished.