Cape Town: Residents visiting their local library may notice a familiar face imploring them to save water. Life-size cut-outs of the City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate’s much-loved mascot, Manzi, are now being rolled out across libraries metro-wide, making water awareness more visible and accessible than ever before.
The City’s Member of the Mayoral Committee for Water and Sanitation – Councillor Zahid Badroodien, together with the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health – Councillor Francine Higham, recently joined Manzi at the Central Library in Cape Town to launch the campaign.
With Manzi already being popular at schools and community engagements across the metro, his arrival at libraries, are trusted, high foot-traffic community spaces, will likely attract millions of visitors to his water saving drive.
Cllr Zahid Badroodien stated that the reality is that every drop they save now helps in protecting the water supply for the months ahead. With rainfall expected to arrive later and in lower volumes, they cannot afford to be complacent. By bringing Manzi into everyday community spaces like libraries, they are making water awareness unavoidable and empowering the youth to be part of the solution.
According to Cllr Francine Higham, the libraries are more than just places to read! They are trusted community spaces where they can inform, educate and inspire action. By bringing Manzi into the libraries, they are meeting residents where they are and making water saving part of everyday life. Small changes in behaviour, especially among young people, can have a big impact on protecting Cape Town’s water future.
With dam levels currently sitting at 45%, residents are urged to reduce consumption to help stretch available water supplies, which may need to last well into next year without guaranteed rainfall.
Collectively, Cape Town must keep daily water usage below 860 million litres (MLD) to reduce the risk of water restrictions, particularly if the city experiences below-average winter rainfall.