Golf courses in the spotlight

2009-10-21 22:31

Cape Town - Golf courses in the Southern Cape have come under scrutiny as the crippling drought in the area continues, the province said on Wednesday.

The announcement followed a meeting involving the national and provincial disaster management centres, their equivalent in the Eden district municipality, and other representatives of all three tiers of government.

The Western Cape department of local government and planning said in a statement afterwards that disaster management authorities had "engaged with" 16 golf courses in the region.

The courses had indicated that their water use did not compete with municipal water sources.

"The meeting agreed that the golf courses will submit a report on their water use," the statement said.

"This report will be verified by the [department of] water affairs."

Bone of contention

The amount of water used by golf courses has long been a bone of contention between developers and environmentalists.

The meeting had also debated whether the development of other projects in the area should be reconsidered.

"The consensus was that, given poverty levels in the area, it is essential to promote economic growth.

"The key issue is how to manage water resources more effectively and to promote appropriate development."

The local municipalities worst affected by the drought are Knysna, George and Mossel Bay.

The statement said all three had achieved cuts in water consumption of up to 20% since last month.

A comprehensive public awareness campaign had been launched and would be intensified.

Emergency funding

Municipalities were still investigating the implementation of domestic water flow restrictors.

Greater attention, with water affairs backing, would be paid to ground water resources.

National and provincial treasury officials would visit the worst-affected municipalities on Thursday to ascertain the full extent of the crisis.

An application for emergency funding had been made to National Treasury and a response was expected next week.

Earlier this month preacher Angus Buchan told 14 000 Southern Cape residents at a prayer meeting in George that there would have to be "spiritual rain" before there was physical rain.

He said God had told him there was a lack of love in the town, which was riddled with racial and political differences.
 

- SAPA