Page 105 - Bulletin 18 2014

102

The Water Crisis

Such a situation was clearly absurd. Above all, the growing population was putting increasing
pressure on the limited water supplies. Water crises became a regular feature of Cape Town

life. In the winter of 1879 only eighteen inches of rain fell as against 40 inches the previous

year. (Cape Times, 24.11.1879.) As early as November water had to be turned off in the town
between six a.m. and six p.m. The Secretary of the Native Affairs Department complained

unavailingly:

“The result is from lack of water to flush the water closets, the effluvia from them

constantly pervades the whole of the inner premises where the occupants are
confined to their desks during the day, and have to submit to the danger of inhaling

the noxious stench.” (3/CT 1/1/5/176-68. Secretary, Native Affairs Department to the

Town Council, 13.1.1880.)

Achieving adequate water supplies, introducing waterborne sanitation to replace the bucket

(night-soil) system, and raising standards of public health were among the chief goals of all

progressive municipalities. By 1902 Claremont, Rondebosch, Mowbray and Woodstock all
had to buy water from Cape Town. The need for amalgamation was so obvious that in 1902

the government, at the request of the Cape Town Council, set up the Cape Peninsula
Commission to inquire into the working of the Cape Peninsula municipalities with a view to

amalgamation. The Commission, chaired by Sir William Bisset Berry, sat for nearly a year,
from 17 March 1902 to 27 January 1903. (Fig. 3.1.) It took vast amounts of evidence and

produced a majority report, as well as a minority report from the ever-awkward Dr. A. J.

Gregory, colonial medical officer of health. (Fig. 3.2.)

The majority report recommended that eight of the municipalities, excluding Kalk Bay and

Simon’s Town, should be united and provided with an increased supply of water equal to at

least 10 million gallons/day. This supply should be drawn from the catchment of one or other
of the Palmiet River, Berg River or Steenbras River and be no more than 50 miles distant