Water for the rich only - 20th April 2022

In Cape Town, South Africa there's a new water crisis. There was a drought four years ago and all the water nearly dried up. But now, the city's got lots of water and private homes have full swimming pools.

Khayelitsha is Cape Town's biggest and poorest township. Here, there's very little water.

Shadrack Mogress says it's worse than the drought four years ago.

Shadrack Mogress: But it is actually worse than that. Because we do have water and we know that. We do have water. But it happens worst that it happened when there was a drought.”

There's water in townships like Khayelitsha but they're close to community toilets.

Residents like Sandile Zatu have to collect water every morning.

Sandile Zatu: “We have no choice but to wake up in the morning and try to fill your bucket as much as you can.”

South Africa's the most unequal country in the world. The World Bank says racism is also a big part of the problem.

Cape Town authorities provided water for the townships during Covid. But this has stopped.

Zahid Badroodien says there's a growing illegal population. The authorities can't provide for them.

Zahid Badroodien: “During the period of Covid 19, at least 17 new illegal informal settlements have been erected across our city, in the space of a few months, seventeen new illegal informal settlements. And the city then, is expected to provide basic services to those settlements, which is difficult to do.”

The population continues to grow and there'll be more droughts in the future. But there's still no development in the area.

Jo Barnes thinks the authorities have failed.

Jo Barnes: “Part of that is outside the control of the city but this has been going on for the last 30 years and I’ve actually seen very little forward planning to cope with these people. It seems to me, and I hope I’m not attributing something to them, but it seems to me as if they thought if they just leave it alone and let them settle where they were, and it is unpleasant, that they will go back."