Alex Lansdowne, who chairs the mayoral advisory committee for water quality in wetlands and waterways, spoke at a Ward 64 community meeting last week.
Communities need to look after wetlands and waterways because the next big collapse in South Africa, after rolling power blackouts, is going to be the country’s water cycle.
This is according to Alex Lansdowne, who chairs the mayoral advisory committee for water quality in wetlands and waterways, who spoke at a ward meeting at a Fish Hoek restaurant last Wednesday.
“The water cycle in South Africa is going to collapse in different ways, different areas for different reasons and different times, and it’s going to have incredibly adverse economic effects,” said Mr Lansdowne, who is a botanist by trade and independent consultant in plant conservation and rehabilitation.
He said the City had prioritised protecting its more than 300km of coastline.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis had committed to conserving the environment and protecting the oceans and wetlands when running for office and following his election, the mayoral advisory committee on water quality, wetlands and waterways, had been established with eight external advisors, including aquatic ecologists, water academics, water specialists, and water activists from around the city, said Mr Lansdowne.
“This is not a committee of politicians. Our programme is being led by people who have a good understanding of water and the environment. I’m excited about what the committee is going to do in the next five years,” Mr Lansdowne said.
Several beaches were closed during the festive season because of sewage spills caused by load-shedding-related pump failures (“Beach closures hurting tourism, says guide,” False Bay Echo, January 12), but Mr Lansdowne said the City had now fitted generators and an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) at pump stations.
Furthermore, weekly water testing was being done at water bodies across Cape Town to ensure they were safe to use.
“I can confirm that no water body in the entire Cape Town is currently closed,” he said.
Two years ago, he said, there had been around 14 000 complaints about sewage spills a month from residents and in a period of two years it had been reduced to 8 000.
“I’m really proud of the people doing it, as it really is a dirty business. In Tokai, when a pump station overflowed due to load shedding, a contractor put on a deep-sea diving suit and he dived seven metres into the sewage in the dark to go and fix a broken valve.”