Liz Harrison, Fish Hoek
In response to “Disregard for water restrictions” (Echo May 24), thank you for your very comprehensive response, and congratulations on all the effort your school (Fish Hoek Primary School) has put into saving municipal water.
The water management plan you have put in place is indeed impressive. However, you did not respond to the problem of your irresponsible and indiscriminate use of our precious groundwater to water the sport’s fields on an almost daily basis.
Groundwater is a finite commodity and statistics tell us the rainfall in the Western Cape is diminishing, while more and more boreholes are being sunk.
According to Sandy Monroe, horticulturist, on radio this week, the water table has dropped.
We know you have dispensation and the blessing of our ward councillor giving you the right to maintain your sports fields, but the law clearly states that those who are fortunate enough to have a borehole/ well point are to use the water efficiently to avoid wastage and evaporation, and we are strongly encouraged to water/ irrigate only on Tuesdays and Saturdays before 9am or after 6pm for a maximum of one hour. Surely the ward councillor does not have the authority to bypass this law which is applicable to all City of Cape Town water
users?
Your school has the responsibility of educating our next generation to become citizens of the future in a world where food and water are becoming very scarce commodities. We all need to do the right thing and surely that does not include watering school sports fields so lavishly for hours almost every day?
* Fish Hoek Primary School principal, Neill Kinkead-Weekes, responds: As a school, we have a dispensation from the council to ensure that our playing fields, where 900-plus children play each school day, and sometimes over the weekends, do not deteriorate into dust bowls. To do this we need to water the fields, outside of the recommended times. We have been “inspected’ by the council and our water saving plans and watering schedules have been approved by them. Our water saving plan include educating the children. Obviously, now that the much-needed rains have arrived, we will no longer need to water the fields as regularly.
* At the time of
going to print ward councillor, Felicity Purchase did not respond to the
Echo’s request for comment.