Cape Town water crisis: With drought, comes the horror of disease
Providing water is merely half the battle. Fighting disease will be The Cape's next big challenge
Image Credits: Adam Spires
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As the Western Cape battles to conserve water, a lot of the attention has been directed towards filling our dams up. It is the utmost concern of the Cape Town water crisis, and rightly so.
However, there’s something just beyond the horizon that hasn’t yet been properly talked about. The province is officially a disaster area because of drought. With drought, comes the horrendous affliction of disease.
If, for whatever barmy reason, any Cape Town residents still remain nonplussed by the impending chaos that this crisis will bring, then they need to do a lot of growing up in a short space of time.
Running out of water doesn’t just mean we all switch to imported sources: It means a lot of us will die.
How does disease form itself in a drought?
A lack of water means a lack of sanitation. Without the ability to keep ourselves clean on a regular basis, it increases the chance of people passing disease to each other. With most of the disease drought causes, it will effect Township residents harder than anyone else.
In densely populated areas with little-to-no flowing water, dysentery and cholera spread like wildfire amongst the poverty-stricken, living in cramped conditions that eventually descend into squalor.
Dry air and a humid atmosphere then attracts disease-carrying insects, like mosquitoes. They spread illness at an alarming rate, and multiply even quicker.
When fresh water reserves eventually become stagnant, bacteria grows and pollutes the source. Parasitic creatures and amoebas thrive in warm, disused bodies of water that haven’t been refreshed by flowing, fresh streams.
A Carte Blanche expose recently revealed the horror of the Hartbeespoort Dam, in North West Province. Hyacinth plants have plagued the facility, with more than 30% of the waters being overrun by the bacteria-ridden greenery.
It’s poisonous to the local water supply, and residents are fighting tooth and nail to solve a problem the Department of Water & Sanitation has taken little interest in. This is highly likely to happen to Cape Town’s draining dams, and will accelerate the loss of clean drinking water.
Cape Town water crisis and the threat of starvation
Food can serve as a vehicle for disease transmission during a drought because water shortages can cause farmers to use recycled water to irrigate their fields and process the food they grow.
As fields become parched of their water sources, crops will die, food production will hit rock bottom the entire Western Cape will suffer. Famine is a nasty, unforgiving condition. The body gets weaker and less able to defend itself against infection, all whilst starving to death becomes a real possibility
What diseases are caused by drought?
- Malaria
- Cholera
- Dysentery
- Valley Fever
- Tuberculosis
- Lyme Disease
- West Nile Virus
- E.Coli
- Salmonella
- Dengue Fever
All of these are deadly. E.Coli and Salmonella are particularly worrisome, given that they can infect a population after rain has fallen. When surface water is harvested, the rain droplets have penetrated the hardened, dusty soil beneath it. This keeps any fresh water polluted, and takes effect when fed into the water supply.
‘Water Migrants’ could destabilise cities
As previously mentioned, it is the people in informal settlements and townships that will struggle the most with the Cape Town water crisis. Once clean water becomes scarce, some inhabitants will be pushed into leaving their homes for nearby cities, in a desperate attempt to survive.
Cape Town is already approaching breaking point. With a influx of ‘water-seeking migrants’ – many of whom would be carrying drought-driven illnesses – the city would be overwhelmed by demands to keep it’s citizens hydrated and protected from disease.
Emergency Services of the Cape Town Municipality will be stretched beyond capacity. With usable water currently predicted to run out before March 2018 (that’s less than five months away, if you were wondering).
‘Phase Two’ of drought response involves drafting in SANDF soldiers onto the Mother City streets. How will a city already at it’s deal with potentially millions of infected patients?
Drought causes mental health issues, suicides
According to one study by Australian psychologists, rates of suicide and “self-harm” jump 8 percent after droughts and heat waves. Events like drought severely impact on the mental well-being of those suffering. However, it’s not a condition that gets prioritised as physical health always comes first.
But if drought is causing a jump in suicides, then that is another disease that its responsible for. Like it or lump it, mental health is just as important as physical health. Only one is invisible, though.
You can read what else is causing the Cape Town water crisis here.
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