Water way to go. News and views on South Africa's drought crisis.

[Daily Maverick] WATER CRISIS EXPLAINED Friday, 27 April 2018 $87,949,488,000 The estimated economic damage attributable to drought from 1980 – 2014. FEATURED ARTICLE [Western Cape Drought Impact: Hard, Long-Term, and Requiring Tough Intervention]( By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE. Last week, representatives from Hortgro, the Department of Agriculture, Vinpro and the African Farmers Association of South Africa reported back to Parliament on the state of agriculture in the Western Cape. The meeting followed an in-depth analysis of the impacts of the drought on all major long-term crops, major vegetables, jobs, exports and other factors, as well as the impact on emerging farmers. The news wasn’t good: water shortages were exacerbated by other factors, and recovery is unlikely to be quick. WATER FACT OF THE WEEK Over 70% of the human brain consists of water. KEY READING [Day Zero: It has become fashionable to blame me for everything – De Lille]( If there was one person in the City of Cape Town’s water response team who had the greatest sense of urgency, it was me. By Patricia De Lille [Findings of new study unequivocal – protect the horticultural haven]( The results of a long-awaited impact study into the Philippi Horticultural Area are out – and the news is good for the farmers who for nearly a decade have been calling for the protection of the area. Provincial government has thrown its weight behind the study, too. But whether its recommendations will be taken up depends largely on the City of Cape Town. By Marelise Van Der Merwe [BEE farming project strangled by drought]( ‘The dam is now at less than 10% of its capacity,’ says Wolseley farmer. First published by GROUNDUP. — EXTERNAL READING [Hormone discovered that helps plants detect drought]( Plants are smarter than we think – and Japanese scientists have isolated at least one drought-savvy mechanism. Researchers at the Riken Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, have discovered a hormone that helps plants sense drought. [Japan Times reports]( plants are “smarter than we give them credit for”. “People think that plants are static because they do not move,” says Fuminori Takahashi, of CSRS. “However, in plants there is close and active communication between tissues separated by large distances.” The hormone identified by Takahashi and colleagues helps plants retain water when none is available in the soil. [W Cape Property market suffering – or not?]( Two contradictory viewpoints emerged this week regarding the effect of drought on the property market in the Western Cape. Fin24 [reported]( this week that data analysts at Lightstone argued drought did little to deter property investment. In Lightstone’s view, investors were more interested in political developments. However, two days later, comment on the Absa Homeowner Sentiment Index (HSI) [attributed]( the sharp drop of 11 percentage points in property market sentiment in the Western Cape (from the final quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year) to the drought. [Never rains but it pours]( Drought-stricken Cape Town experienced minor flooding this week after heavy rain blocked roads and disrupted traffic, reports [Reuters]( . According to the report, the first winter rains were expected to “slightly replenish” dams. The floods were not expected to require evacuations or emergency shelters. [Water released to Misverstand Dam]( The first water has been released by the Department of Water and Sanitation in the Western Cape from the Berg River Dam and has reached the Misverstand Dam. It will relieve pressure from the drought on 22 towns in the West Coast Region, said James-Brent Styan, Spokesperson for the Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell. An amount of just more than five million cubic litres of water was released. Earlier in the week, Bredell’s office released a statement on allegations that water was being extracted illegally from river systems in the West Coast Region. Municipalities were acting on these reports, the statement said. — [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( Copyright © 2018 Daily Maverick, All rights reserved. You are receiving this mail because you are awesome and on the Daily Maverick First Thing subscriber list. Keep up to date on all DM activities by [clicking here](. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](