When I was travelling through to the Richtersveld, a dry semi–desert region, I stopped at the town of De Aar. On entering the restroom at a restaurant in the centre of town, I found the wash basin hot water tap running full blast.
This is probably the result of a low-information mindset and culture. It’s got to be because how can you waste water in such a water-stressed area?
My only hope is that the water card games that the water affairs ministry was handing out to motorists at the Kroonvaal Toll Plaza before Easter will also be dished out in towns like De Aar.
For many, green is seen as a “nice to have” or not bothered about one bit. A survey released earlier this year by GlobalScan Radar found that fewer people now consider issues such as water shortages, water and air pollution and CO2 emissions to be very serious than any time in the last 20 years. Some 22,812 people were polled in 22 countries.
How many real indicators of climate change such as floods and droughts do people want?
Only 58% of people polled viewed water pollution as the most serious environmental problem worldwide.
Get this: last year with a serious drought in the US, people resorted to painting their lawns green because there was so little water. Associated Press reported that Terry LoPrimo hired a local entrepreneur to spray her lawn with a “deep-green organic dye”. “It looks just like a spring lawn, the way it looks after rain. It’s really gorgeous.”
Turf dye is used on golf courses and athletic fields to give them a more “lush” appearance. Residential spraying is a new trend because of drought and economic tough times. Lawns at foreclosed homes boost resale prospects.
Any landscape architect would pull her hair out. Why not use local indigenous grasses?
For entrepreneurs opportunities will come as water gets scarcer. Not only with garden lawns and swimming pools. For instance, new water filtering bottles, the “bottled water killer” have been launched (9 April 2013) which replace 300 disposable bottles and save money.
Water’s biggest enemy is the low-information culture where people are too slow to act or simply don’t act at all.
Stay inspired
Chesney Bradshaw
