With every passing day, Capetonians are getting a little saltier.

We’re stressed and angry about this mess, so you can cut us a little slack, but the same can’t be said for the officials who are trying to turn this ship around.

GroundUp invited its readers to send in their questions, which they then passed on to those officials, and some of those answers are worth running through.

Officials that responded to the questions were Ian Neilson (Deputy Mayor), JP Smith (Mayco Member for Safety & Security and Social Services), and Priya Reddy (Director of Communications).

We’ll start with the toilet-flushing question, because we’re living in mellow central right now:

Is it ok to use sea water to flush toilets?

Ian Neilson: In general, the City does not encourage the large-scale household-level flushing of toilets with sea water. It could corrode parts of the reticulation infrastructure and our wastewater treatment facilities are not designed to handle high salinity. As far as possible, residents are encouraged to use appropriate greywater and alternative sources, such as from boreholes, to flush toilets.

As alternative resources could diminish due to usage limits, the City will flush the sewerage system at appropriate points. This forms part of the comprehensive operational plan that the City is developing…

We are all having to reassess our relationship with water, and the City supports the move by residents to explore more sustainable water-wise technologies such as composting/waterless toilets.

Then there’s the borehole question that keeps on being raised:

Many people are now getting boreholes (or wellpoints) installed…What are the rules on this (have they changed recently)? Are there serious consequences of too many people using wellpoints or boreholes? Can borehole water be used for flushing, bathing, dishwashing and laundry?

Ian Neilson: Firstly, the City does not regulate borehole usage. The custodian of water resources is the National Department of Water and Sanitation. But the City has, in the implementation of previous water restrictions, encouraged conservative usage of borehole water. We have recommended limited usage in accordance with water restrictions for municipally-supplied drinking water. Our soon to be implemented Level 6b restrictions make further recommendations for the use of boreholes.

It is not in the City’s mandate to regulate the usage of groundwater sources, but we have tried as far as possible to drive the message home that unlimited usage of boreholes will not be sustainable. The main consideration here is that private boreholes are not recharged. Private users do not replace the underground water that is used. This is in contrast to the City’s aquifer programme, where aquifer recharge will be a non-negotiable aspect of abstraction.

We covered the borehole issue here, as well as some rules surrounding groundwater usage.

As for how one can access the water points – Will the City provide public transport services to help people get to and from water points and will these be free?

JP Smith: Able-bodied residents will need to find their own way of getting to and from the collection points. Public transport will be available as usual. Other distribution mechanisms are being investigated. We are selecting sites to try and provide reasonable access to as many residents as possible and are talking to civil society about ways to assist vulnerable people…

The majority of water collection points will also have a drive-through water collection option, which will operate in a similar way to a petrol station. Persons will be able to fill containers with water without having to remove them from their private vehicles or mini-bus taxi. This is anticipated to increase the efficiency of the water collection points and assist persons who are not physically able to carry water from water collection points.

If you think there are plenty of fights at SA fast-food drive-thrus, wait until the thirst kicks in.

We shall leave it there for now, but you’ll find a host of other questions and answers here.

[source:groundup]