Lesersbrief: Ope brief van Kapenaar aan die res van die landFoto: Arcaion/Pixabay.com Maroela Media publiseer die oorspronklike weergawe van die brief, soos dit in Engels geskryf is, om seker te maak dat die boodskap nie in die vertaling verlore gaan nie. – Red Lynn Duddy van Kaapstad skryf: Dear family and friends from Jozi and Durbs and further afield and abroad. Soon you are heading to Cape Town and surrounds and usually we are sooooo bloody happy about that, our verges get mowed when usually the only other time is the Cape Argus or Two Oceans. We cannot wait to show you our new restaurants, brag about the endless beautiful beaches and basically just kuier sommer baie lekker! But not this year. This year we are very very nervous and if I have to be honest a bit resentful and very scared to share our water. Wine you can have by the case load, but for heaven’s sake please do not flush the toilets! Sure you have read about the “waterkrisis”, but much like us South African’s watching the Trumpster hurl insults at that Korean dude it doesn’t really fall into your day to day realm of life. We, however, have become quite used to wearing the same clothes for days on end, our kids are now forced to do swimming at school (those whose schools still have open pools as 27 out of 34 municipal pools have been closed already) because it means they don’t need to bath at home and walking into an unflushed yellow loo at a restaurant or a mall gets the one who exits a nod of “thank you for doing your bit and not flushing”. But you, dear visitor, you have come from lands of plenty, most of you still bath, shower endlessly, flush your toilets with CLEAN PURE DRINKING WATER and your swimming pools and gardens can actually be used for those purposes unlike most of our brown scrubby arid gardens. How do we get across to you the severity of no water from the 18th of March 2018 when you will all be long gone back home? It’s insane and I really don’t blame you for not believing it, I mean Cape Town is a jewel of the world, first world brilliance, how can this be possible? Every single person in the Western Cape who is hosting visitors, guest houses, hotels, I don’t really care HOW much your guest is paying you – the resource has to be protected – and not by paying fines. Accepting that you will “just get a high bill” is NOT going to give us back our water. So our dear visitors… please please please, don’t have long showers when you get off the beach, don’t flush toilets with fresh water – most of us by now have incredibly sophisticated bucket systems going and will happily show you how to flush. You don’t want to be sitting back home reading posts from your loved ones how they have to go stand in a Q patrolled by the army for 5 litres of water simply because you wanted to bath each night. But apart from that have a SUPER time… PS: You may want to bring your own eggs as well, ummm… and butter, but that might be awkward in luggage.