Lebogang Maseko
Cape Town - One of my Facebook friends wrote on his page a few weeks ago about the need to have a study on the effects of load shedding on our mental health.
Although I think this was made in jest, from what I gathered from the comments from his other friends and his responses to them, this made sense.
I am raising a three-year-old toddler who lives off TV and YouTube content.
Most of the educational programmes she watches are on YouTube.
Now you can imagine looking at the load shedding schedule and realising the lights will go off and the device’s battery will run flat at any moment.
Yes, I am serious, I want you to imagine it.
The little humans have the capacity to become terrible and often display unpredictable behaviour.
Having to deal with a toddler’s tantrums is one of my worst fears. It comes second to my fear of darkness. I am afraid of the dark, so load shedding is my worst nightmare.
Luckily for me, and momentarily, I have mastered the art to let my daughter know what load shedding is and how it affects our lives.
I think she gets it, to an extent. The other day, the lights were about to go off and, as usual, I alerted her and began switching off all electric appliances in the house.
Darkness hit, then she went: “Ahh mama, no lights. It is boring.”
Yes, it is boring, or “boling” as she refers to it. But more than anything, load shedding is an inconvenience.
I get anxious all the time, more especially when she is around.
However, my daughter and I are fortunate, unlike most South Africans, we have a gas stove. Lights might go off, but we are assured a warm meal every night. See, unlike water, electricity has a substitute.
With South Africa being a water-scarce country, there are lessons we can all learn from the challenges faced by the power utility.
For me, it’s about not using more than I need.
Water and electricity are basic human needs.
And yes, dare I say, aware that I will come across as criticising the government I work for, that much more work has to be done and speedily so. More so, collaborative work is needed.
In the water sector, Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu has been calling for private sector partnerships.
This is as the demand for water and sanitation infrastructure development and refurbishment in South Africa increases due to population and economic growth. It is envisaged that by 2030, there will be a 17% deficit in water availability.
As such, the Department of Water and Sanitation has established a Water Partnership Office, with the assistance of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, to serve as a special-purpose vehicle to facilitate partnerships and manage joint accounts for funding for projects implemented through collaboration.
The office also manages special programmes such as water conservation and demand management (particularly reducing non-revenue water), water reuse, wastewater-treatment improvement and seawater desalination, among others.
A step in the right direction although far more work lies ahead.
We say that money doesn’t grow on trees.
Neither do water and electricity. I plead that as we all try to find ways to live with load shedding, much as it is an inconvenience, we need to be mindful that we would not have to find ways to live without water, because there is just no way around it.
Unlike electricity, water has no substitute.
We need to use it wisely. Can you imagine a situation where there is water shedding? In my situation, as a woman raising a young child. It would be catastrophic.
No amount of words would be sufficient to tell her she cannot wash her hands after using the bathroom or drink water because our taps were dry.
I plead, let us all treat water with the utmost care.
Maseko is a communicator at the Department of Water and Sanitation. She writes in her personal capacity.
Cape Times