More mutterings

May is the season of sunsets in Cape Town, and also berg winds, the hot wind that blows down to the coast from the interior. I don't enjoy the berg wind, as it increases the static effect on hair and clothes and I already have a problem with touching metal objects such as shopping trolleys and door jambs. It also dries out the garden, nullifying any good effects of a little rain.
In the past (I will call it 'before the drought', rather like the phrase 'before the rinderpest' so beloved by Herman Charles Bosman), a berg wind would motivate me to do an 'autumn clean' - washing heavy bedding, curtains and other household accessories that need plenty of wind and warmth to dry the same day. Now we aren't allowed to use enough water to do the most basic of laundry. Our good humour is wearing thin as we scan the weather forecasts for news of rain. A forecast of 90mm over the catchment area next week is greeted with jubilation and passing around of positive posts on Facebook. Within hours, the forecast has been reduced to 30mm. Are these forecasts now 'fake news'? Are they designed to excite and deject us on the same day? Should we stop reading forecasts, rather like I stopped watching the news many years ago?
Of course, there are times when they are wrong and we get much more rain than hoped for, and I think we are pinning our hopes for drought relief on unusual and unexpected weather patterns. I would not like to be a weather forecaster right now. They probably get backed into corners at parties with fingers wagged in their faces, as if they are responsible for the situation.
In the meantime, we are learning a valuable lesson in wastage and scarcity management, which will stand us in good stead in the coming years. I think the long-term answer will have to be desalination, and I'm busy planning my route down to the sea, just a few metres away through the neighbour's garden, for a nice thick pipe to draw water up to the house to be filtered through a home desalination plant! We can dream.