Shaming and blaming: Five ways to tackle the water-wasters in YOUR life

20 January 2017 - 18:08 By Tanya Farber
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

You’ve tightened the taps‚ skipped a few showers and used grey water on the plants. Now the real challenge is how to get others to do their bit for saving water during the worst drought the country has seen in three decades.

What works? What doesn’t? How can we turn it around so Cape Town‚ for example‚ has more than 100 days of water in the piggy bank?

*Drought shaming: Social media drought-shaming is thriving. Many residents have taken to it like a duck to water (so to speak). In Cape Town‚ increasingly‚ images of neighbours breaking restrictions are appearing on different platforms.

  • Water crisis at new depthsCape Town's dam levels are expected to dip to around 20% in the next few months and experts warn that the city has only enough water stored for the next 100 days. 

One resident‚ who did not want to be named‚ said: “Yes‚ it embarrassed me that now the whole neighbourhood knew I was watering my lawn to try to keep it alive. Admittedly I have mixed feelings about it‚ but I have now stopped.”

*Blame game in the press: An effective route — not yet taken in South Africa — is drought-shaming in mainstream media. In Los Angeles last year‚ it worked like a bomb: officials had tried education‚ restrictions and written notices to try curb the problem but nothing worked very well. Then‚ local newspapers began requesting lists from city officials on which residents had received letters. And‚ voila‚ water use dropped by more than 25%.

*The “crisis looming” approach: It is possible to get entire communities to change their behaviour overnight – if they buy into the cause for it‚ according to Wits University climate change expert Professor Bob Scholes. If the “need for change is widely and urgently perceived”‚ this can happen.

For example‚ says Scholes‚ “when the allied powers were going into World War II‚ the government overnight fixed prices and salaries for the duration of the war‚ and nobody complained because there was a great and common belief in what the problem was.” In this case‚ it takes people knowing what the horrific future of a drought-torn region looks like before they change their behaviour.

*Getting the kids to cheerlead: “Children are incredibly influenced by example”‚ according to Scholes. When water-saving behaviour is practised by the grown-ups‚ they not only follow suit but become advocates for the thinking behind it if it is explained to them.

According to Water Use It Wisely‚ the best tips which children take on board and then spread the word about include “turning off the taps when brushing teeth or scrubbing hands and faces‚ going around the house making sure all taps are tightly closed‚ only flushing the loo after a number two‚ and collecting left-over water from cups‚ bottles and pots to hydrate the grass and plants”. Setting a cellphone timer with an alarm when someone takes a shower also works.

*Don’t make assumptions: It is counterproductive to assume it is “only the wealthy” or “only the poor” who need lessons in water saving‚ according to Scholes. Of course there were wealthy people who took an attitude of “I work for my money and I pay for my water so I’m entitled to use lots of water as long as I pay for it”. Similarly‚ there are poorer residents who might face far more immediate struggles than the water-saving campaign.

But‚ he says‚ “you can’t make generalisations. The challenge is to spread the message across all parts of society.” When there is local pushback‚ “you cross a threshold and it suddenly becomes uncool to behave in that way (in this case wasting water).”

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now