A drought, in 2015, arose in the Western Cape province of South Africa, causing austere water scarcity in the locality, thus affecting Cape Town city. For a majority of the inhabitants of the town’s expansive low-income community, water has constantly been an occasional resource. Cape Town is the first city ever to record water shortage in history, and its taps are at the threat of going dry due to prolonged drought, and the administration’s failure to offer a substitute water source to this vastly populated region, leaving citizens to struggle in finding a way out of this calamity for themselves. Since the period of apartheid, South Africa as a whole has continually faced economic and social disparities, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor has always been conspicuous (Braford). This study will help educate the upcoming generation on the impact of economic inequality in society, and the consequences of the government’s failure to uphold impartiality amongst its citizens. This paper is addressed mainly to the government who is in charge of making policies for the state, and the ruling class who have a say in which people should have a particular resource since it will enable them recognize how the poor are being harassed, and are in distress because of water scarcity.
Thesis Statement
Unequal supply of resources such as water highlights the economic injustice that exists in Cape Town, as the gap between the wealthy and the underprivileged continues to increase.
Introductory Rationale
Cape Town, the second largest city in South Africa, has a massive population of about 4.3 million individuals. The region experiences warm, arid summers and winter rainfall, and water is distributed mainly from six main dams of the Western Cape Water Supply System, in the hilly areas near to the city (Sandhu). This Cape is the only domain in the country overseen by the conflicting party executives, whereas the presiding African National Congress rules the rest of the region. This split has ignited problematical relationships between the Western Cape and the National Government. At the completion of the Berg River Dam in 2009, the storage volume of the dams providing Cape Town was improved by 17% (Sandhu). However, even with this upsurge, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry projected that the growing demand from the municipality would surpass supply by 2013 if the demand management actions and preservation would not be put in place. But even with those measures, additional water sources would still be needed by the year 2019. Whereas drought is a cause of the town’s water paucity, studies show that among other factors, poor planning of water management as well as economic inequality has aggravated the issue.
Supporting Claims and Evidence
Water has and will always remain an essential resource that every individual in society is entitled to. South Africa is one of the most unequal states in the globe whereby, the money in one’s pockets determines their access to resources. The issue of water scarcity in Cape Town has placed the poor inhabitants in an unfortunate situation since the rich can buy their way out of the predicament. An economic gap has seen the underprivileged lay back and wait to see what the administration develops, and thinking if they have the funds to reduce on food to buy water. In a recorded interview with Cape Town resident, she quoted, “The upcoming struggle now, will not be a struggle for freedom, but a struggle for water.” On the other hand, the wealthy are advantaged since they can hire companies to dig wells and boreholes. Thus they can purchase truckloads of bottled water, even at inflated amounts. They can also order purification equipment to clean groundwater or make it non-toxic enough to fill a swimming pool. “Inequity plays out in water very obviously, and what is seen in Cape Town risks becoming an example of that. The social contract breaks down if the rich find their solution and leave the rest to fend for themselves,” said Giulio Boccaleti, the Nature Conservancy global managing director for water (Reuters).
With South Africa having the highest Gini Coefficient, a measure of inequality from a World Bank survey in 2017, it was recorded that ten percent of the population possessed more than ninety percent of the country’s wealth, according to Professor Haroon Bhorat, of Stellenbosch University in the nation (Bhorat). Cape Town is an extraordinary illustration of those figures and recorded a handful of homes sold for around $10 million each. Due to poor governance, economic injustice has been proliferated. Inequality in the region is frequently on a racial basis, with whites focused on the town’s affluent territories. The poor on the other hand is restricted to casual households, where water intakes are limited to 13 gallons for every person daily. An inhabitant in one of the congested settlements of ridged metal homes, Vuyo Kazi, says how she used two kettles of water for bathing before, but now she uses only one (Kazi).
The first two years after drought hit South Africa, the organization responsible for water supply failed to implore any constraint procedures due to a supposition that it was only time-based. Therefore, this led to the six main springs of water in the state being disposed to the dryness of the area. The government neglected the vital steps of running, ordering and conserving water by being reluctant to release drought relief funding which stemmed from escalating debt, malpractice and corruption in the national Department of Water and Sanitation. This was revealed by a civil society group, South African Water Caucus (Reuters).
The water management devices (WMDs) put up as a tactic for the controlling of water call and preservation have tampered with the fairness at the indigenous level because the wealthy get water while the underprivileged suffer from a lack of procedural justice. Environmental justice has not been practiced with the implementation of the strategies since the city experiences an absence of household involvement, ignorance to identify the requirements and susceptibility of diverse homes, and augmented rights violation. Cape Town officials have tried to react autonomously, opening up natural springs at the foot of the Table Mountains to any person with a water jug. However, those springs are far away from the city’s casual residence, and no public transportation is accessible. A concern by one resident Ndabezitha was on how the residents were expected to get there (Reuters).
Early this year, the government announced plans for Day Zero, which will occur when the combined level of Cape Town’s dams reaches 13.5 percent. On this day, executives in the city take full control over water supplies- by literally switching off all the taps in the city- for the dam to reach the satisfactory levels again (Reuters). To obtain water, residents will have to queue at the water collection point for their reduced quota of 25 litters a day. According to Xanthea Limberg, the member of Cape Town’s city council in control of water and waste services, under the city’s calamity plan, local settlements will collect water as long as it is accessible, to prevent sicknesses from spreading through compactly populated areas. She continues to say that thanks to the conservation, the potential “Day zero” has been pushed back to July, as officials say (Reuters).
Counterargument
The water crisis is not entirely based on poor governance and economic inequality. Unrestrained urban expansion and strictness have barred individuals from gaining access to water and other resources. Since 1990, the likelihood of the city surpassing its water supply was amplified due to the high population growth, which has culminated in over-consumption of water. The intractable witlessness, careless development, and stern-based leaders are responsible for this predicament (Sandhu).
Conclusion
To deal with the water shortage in Cape Town, the government ought to take drastic measures in creating policies that will curb the economic injustices. Access to water should not be biased toward the wealthy but should be regulated to ensure the poor are not left out as well. Implementation should put into consideration Cape Town’s continuing social inequality, and to plan for the future, the city should deliberate wisely how the expenses and profits of creating flexibility in the waster sector are dispersed among the diverse members of society.
Works Cited
Bhorat, Professor Haroon. Factors Impacting South African Economic Equality D. Neos. 13 October 2013. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23258020.2013.848627.
Braford, Andrew. As Cape Town's water runs out, the rich drill wells. The poor worry about eating. 24 February 2018. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-south-africa-water-20180224-story.html#nt=oft07a-4gp1. 18 July 2018.
Kazi, Vuyo. Economic Fault Lines in South Africa Ashley Rudeverld. 2 July 2014. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/south-africas-economic-fault-lines.
Reuters, Wendel Roelf. This is how Cape Town is coping with its impending 'Day Zero' when the water will run out. Chicago, 21 February 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-cape-town-is-coping-with-its-impending-water-crisis-2018-2?IR=T.
Sandhu, Serina. Cape Town water crisis: Why is water running out and what is Day Zero? Birminghman, 4 April 2018. https://inews.co.uk/news/world/cape-town-water-crisis-day-zero-why-is-water-running-out/.
