There is a deep level of depravity that defines a government capable of reducing its people to the indignity that the government of the Eastern Cape, and SA in general, have reduced people to.
I mention the provincial government because there are many unconscionable things that are happening in the Eastern Cape that should not happen.
Millions of South Africans live in indignity owing to poor governance, but there is a particularity about this province that demands focus.
The depths of indignity that the people of this province are constantly having to endure surpass “normal” suffering in our country.
The province’s persistent colonial and apartheid legacy is an undeniable factor, and a significant one.
But the poor governance that has defined the democratic dispensation cannot be ignored or minimised — to do so would be to engage in revisionism and dishonesty.
Recently, residents of Kariega rushed out of their homes with buckets and containers to collect water after heavy rains battered the Nelson Mandela Bay region.
For months, residents in parts of Ward 49 have endured long periods of water shortages owing to the failure of the municipality to ensure a consistent supply.
When rain swept through the Bay, they saw it as an opportunity to collect water for storage as a way to mitigate potential shortages in the future.
Let me be clear that there is nothing wrong with conserving rainwater for domestic use.
In fact, this is one of the most important things that households and businesses need to be doing in our country.
SA is a semi-arid region and because of this water scarcity is a fact.
As a geographer trained at the Institute for Water Research at Rhodes University in Makhanda, I will be the first person to advocate for rainwater harvesting.
It is important and must form part of our water conservation efforts on a national scale.
But there is a fine line between people conserving water because they recognise that it is a valuable resource and people being forced to store rainwater because of poor water governance by the state.
That fine line is what makes what happened in Kariega unimaginably cruel and dehumanising.
The water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay is not purely the result of climate change and related environmental factors that inform water insecurity.
It is, fundamentally, the result of a municipality and provincial government that have failed to provide the most basic services.
The water crisis in the Eastern Cape is neither new nor is it under-reported.
It has been going on for more than a decade, and I know this because in my first year as a student at Rhodes University, I learnt that access to water access was not guaranteed in Makhanda.
It was not simply about water not coming out of the taps, it was also about the quality of the water when it was available.
In Kariega, the situation is also not simply about access to water but about access to all other basic services such as electricity.
The breakdown, therefore, is about governance — and this is the reality about the rest of the country.
The Nelson Mandela Bay leadership should hang its head in shame for enabling a situation where severe rains that are inherently destructive have become a lifeline for communities who are being denied access to water.
Harvesting rainwater should be an act of conservation rooted in the need to protect our water resources.
It should be about augmenting resources that exist.
It should not be the only way for people to survive, especially when the absence of water is due to deteriorating water infrastructure.
That it is, is shameful.
