Business and training: Mike’s message
35
So, you think you have
problems?
Of my many irritating habits, I am told that one of the worst of
these is that I always look on the bright side. So, I am always
telling people that their difficulties are comparatively minor.
By Mike Muller
South Africans have a problem with our
president? Well, if we were Americans, we would
be really embarrassed. A president who spends
taxpayers’ money on his personal residence?
Try Mr Erdogan in Turkey. He built a 1 000-room
palace and now he is trying to change their
Constitution so that he can live in it indefinitely.
Corruption problems? Go to Brazil where the entire
political system is based on bribery, according to
recent reports. Brazil was also helpful when Gauteng
was in the midst of its drought (remember?). I was
able to remind people that the City of São Paulo
(which has three times the number of people) was
brought to its knees by appallingly bad drought
management, as three spheres of government
bickered about what needed to be done and
whether restrictions could be introduced ahead of a
national election.
So, talking about drought, those whiners in Cape Town
who, as I write, are complaining that they have less
than 100 days of water left in their dams should not
complain. I was in Windhoek recently where, just after
Christmas, their dams were down to 30 days’ supply.
Then, as so often happens, the heavens opened and
they are back to 50%. In Namibia, they don’t argue
about whether the glass is half full, they are just
happy that there is something in it.
What is interesting is how they were coping. After the
usual year of denial, they started to take the drought
seriously in 2014. The City authorities introduced the
usual restrictions and put up water prices. They soon
discovered that while domestic users were quite quick
to respond, public authorities were slower, not least
because the maintenance of public buildings was in
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
such a poor state. There is a good aquifer beneath the
city but it cannot supply large volumes. By the time
they started looking at it, it had even less. Even their
sewage to potable water plants was not going to help
— they need wastewater to start with!
To their credit, the authorities, particularly at City level,
began to do some sensible things. They are fixing
plumbing in public buildings. They are also discouraging
large stands in new housing developments — the
higher the density, the smaller the use of water for
gardens. Thirsty industries were told to find ways to
reduce consumption by 30% — which they did. They
are developing their aquifer as a big storage reservoir,
which will provide greater security in future droughts,
although it still must be filled.
Mike Muller
Mike Muller is a visiting
adjunct professor at the
Wits University School
of Governance and a
former Commissioner
of the National Planning
Commission and Director
General of Water Affairs.
And that is the problem: the City still needs to bring
water from further afield. Engineers and hydrologists
have been telling them this for a decade. But, because
it will cost money to go up to the Okavango River (or
down to the sea to get desalinated water), politicians
have been slow to act. Now they have no choice —
they are going to have to spend the money.
There are lessons for Cape Town in this. Capetonians
should stop moaning and ask why action was not
taken earlier. They should also fix those leaking
taps and make sure that the same is done in public
buildings. But, most important, next time they should
not wait for a drought before they wake up and realise
that a growing city needs a growing supply. It is a
clear case to apply my favourite management maxim:
panic at the right time! PA
Panic at the right time!
May 2017 Volume 23 I Number 3