with TV ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAd: It was tough. But together, we\u2019ve refused to waste water. Now we\u2019re the #1 water-saving city in the world. Come and see for yourself. It might just change the way you think about water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Louise says that Cape Town\u2019s water emergency still isn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong><\/strong>We cannot say that the crisis ended. because we didn\u2019t up until now, since the 2018, not one of the years, not one of the winters, Cape Town had its hundred percent rainfall. It\u2019s on average between 70 and 80 percent of our annual rainfall that we had since, since 2018. That\u2019s the first thing that we should know. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe second thing is that the population in Cape Town increases. The population is growing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cape Town drought was the worst in 100 years. But everybody knows that it won\u2019t be the last. Even during the Day Zero episode, city leaders held urgent meetings to consider ways to avoid another crisis. They launched construction of two desalination plants, designed to convert sea water into drinking water. They began digging deeper to reach even more remote aquifers\u2014underground water stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And\u2014even before the crisis was over\u2014they were meeting with The Nature Conservancy, the nonprofit environmental charity where Louise Stafford works. They had a crazy idea that could buy Cape Town two months of water a year, <\/em>cheaply and perpetually, using a method that worked with nature instead of against it. All they needed was a couple of helicopters, some ropes and saws, and some of the poorest women in Cape Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter the break, I\u2019ll tell you about it\u2014and whether it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Break<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\nAs you now know, the 4.7 million people who live in Cape Town, South Africa, get their water from the mountains around the city. It runs down and eventually flows into six giant reservoirs\u2014that by February 2018, were essentially empty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka: We were quite panicking. I don\u2019t want to lie to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s Thandeka Mayiji-Rafu, who lives in a small town near Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asiphe: [00:10:40] You would open your tap, and then you would get water that smells muddy. Sometimes the color of the water, you would see that it\u2019s brown, meaning that it\u2019s coming straight from the bottom of the river or the dam. So it was really a difficult time for us, really. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s Asiphe Cetywayo. I\u2019ll tell you what Thandeka and Asiphe are doing in this story in just a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, the first solutions that occurred to Cape Town\u2019s engineers were what environmentalists call gray infrastructure: Stuff you build<\/em>, like desalinization plants. Pipelines. Deep drilled wells to aquifers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut Louise Stafford at The Nature Conservancy raised her hand to propose a different approach: Green infrastructure. Work with <\/em>nature, instead of against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo understand the gist of the idea, we need to shift our focus from the city of Cape Town\u2014to the magnificent sandstone peaks surrounding it. These mountains draw a million tourists a year\u2014but they\u2019re also host to a remarkable ecosystem called fynbos. <\/em>That\u2019s F-Y-N-B-O-S\u2014loosely translated from Afrikaans as fine bush. <\/em>It\u2019s a narrow belt of incredibly diverse plant life, spectacular weird flowers, shrubs, grasses that give the mountain a sweet herby smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to Louise Stafford, the fynbos is really something special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong><\/strong>It\u2019s got about nine and a half thousand different plant species. Over 70 percent of those plants are found nowhere else on Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a handy bonus, the fynbos isn\u2019t very thirsty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise: [00:21:33] Because it was evolved over time for this environment, it also lives with the environment. It doesn\u2019t take too much water and it\u2019s in balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But something else grows on the mountain slopes around Cape Town\u2014something that shouldn\u2019t be there. Ominous music please?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[music]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you. Those mountains have been pretty much taken over by an invasive species that might not strike you as especially evil: Pine trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, European colonists brought pines and acacia trees to Cape Town and grew them in plantations. They couldn\u2019t very well build their homes and repair their ships with Fynbos shrubs. So they set about growing their own timber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the process, they triggered a classic story of unintended consequences: an invasive species running wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong><\/strong>It\u2019s human induced. They arrive, they\u2019re without natural enemies. That gives them a competitive advantage, because they can grow without any predators or insects that eat them or pathogens. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo what happens is that the trees, the pine trees escape from the plantations. And it started growing up high up in the mountainous areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These pines have huge root systems. They\u2019re incredibly thirsty trees\u2014a single tree can drink 400 gallons of water a day. 400 gallons\u2014remember, the people down below were trying to get by on 13 <\/em>gallons a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLouise: If it rains, the pine tree roots take that water up and \u2014and evaporate. It evaporates and it doesn\u2019t allow the water to get into the streams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP So the trees are stealing the water up high in higher elevations mountains before it can reach the city?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong>Yeah, the invasive trees steal water from high up in the mountains and from lower lying areas where they would infiltrate aquifers and replenish the rivers. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLouise and the Nature Conservancy put together a public-private partnership\u2014a coalition of environmental groups, government departments, and corporate donors\u2014called the Greater Cape Town Water Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its proposal to the city was simple but incredibly ambitious: Hit Undo on the 150-year-old pine-tree mistake. Cut them all down<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLouise Looking at the trees is a science that\u2019s been coming for a long time. We always knew that invasive trees steal water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what is new is the urgency, the fact that the dams and the reservoirs ran dry, the urgency and the realization changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP What was the hardest part of getting this to happen? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise The hardest part was to convince a city that was facing a situation of taps running dry \u2026to think beyond the short term of getting of a rainy season and of pipes and reservoirs. But to think that nature can become part of the solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP So the hardest part wasn\u2019t the engineering or getting people into rough, dangerous mountainous areas to cut down trees. It was the people part\u2026the political part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP You make it sound like anybody would need to be convinced. I mean, who wouldn\u2019t want an inexpensive nature-based solution compared with building a desalination plant? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong><\/strong>I think the reason why is because the figures aren\u2019t there. Municipal manager or municipal water utility, their main function is to make sure that the taps are open. And it\u2019s mostly run by engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow do you convince engineers, whose first instinct is to build <\/em>stuff, that the better, cheaper, longer-lasting solution is to cut down <\/em>stuff?<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou meet them on their own turf: With surveys and research. In 2018, the Nature Conservancy conducted a study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise: We said, \u201c if we clear the invasive trees in certain areas, how quickly can we get the water back in the system, and at what cost?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the business case, I believe, was a game changer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study revealed an astonishing statistic: Within five years of clearing the invasive trees, the city would gain over 13 billion gallons of water \u2026every single year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise The city would gain two months water supply every year if we clear 157,000 acres. Two months water supply every year, into perpetuity, for as long as we maintain the areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And by 2050, keeping the invasive trees cleared would gain the city of Cape Town four <\/em>months of water every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd I\u2019m guessing that this is the part that caught the eye of the city engineers: the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise: Cutting down those invasive trees has shown a return on investment of 351%. In other words, it\u2019s 351% per cent more cost effective to clear invasive trees from the watersheds than it is to set up and manage and operate the desalination plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a handy bonus, clearing the trees is a more or less permanent fix. As long as you stop by every couple of years for a little cleanup, Louise says that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise: It will carry on forever. Whereas if you look at an engineered infrastructure, they have dams or reservoirs have a lifespan, pipes have a lifespan. So one always have to maintain or rebuild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP And did nobody say, \u201cwait a minute, this is the first time in history that the Nature Conservancy is suggesting cutting down<\/em> a lot of trees?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nLouise We understand that it\u2019s important to have trees to\u2014to help with carbon sequestration and mitigate climate change. But if you have the wrong tree, or the right tree in the wrong area\u2014In other words, the tree that doesn\u2019t evolve in an area, and become invasive, the cost of having that tree in a watershed is outstrips the benefit. where we remove trees, we allow the native vegetation to restore. And by doing that, you\u2014 you enhance the environment as the natural environment rather than then looking at it just simply removing trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, you might consider cutting down 250 square miles of pine forest on steep, dangerous mountain slopes, in blazing heat and whipping winds, to be a fairly ambitious project. But Louise and her team decided to make it just a little more ambitious yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to understand the significance of this twist, we have to acknowledge a particular dubious distinction held by South Africa: On the list of the world\u2019s countries, sorted by wealth inequality, South Africa is in first place. Or dead last, depending on how you look at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[music]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until 1994, of course, South Africans lived under the legal and political system called apartheid: official racial segregation and economic discrimination for the benefit of the white population. Strict laws literally dictated separate neighborhoods for each skin color. If you were black, you lived in what are called townships: very poor, ramshackle, crowded neighborhoods, on the outskirts of town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apartheid ended 27 years ago\u2014but the townships are still there. Each neighborhood does have running water now\u2014a single public spigot out by the road. They have toilets, too: one porta-potty for each dozen families or so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now you have the context for the choice of workers that Louise and her team chose for the tree-cutting project: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise <\/strong>We target women and young people under 25. And through creating these job opportunities, we improve livelihoods. We help alleviate poverty. We give additional skills and dignity to people who don\u2019t have work. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThat\u2019s right: The plan was to hire women\u2014<\/em>poor women\u2014from the city to do the work. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLouise So the added benefit of the work that we do is job creation and poverty alleviation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP Wasn\u2019t that considered an added complication to an already complicated project? Because you\u2019re\u2014 you\u2019re hiring people who have no experience in forestry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louis: But people are highly trained. We make sure that safety is first. And we\u2019re really very excited about this opportunity that\u2019s been created for small businesses and for women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s where Thandeka and Asiphe come in. They were among the workers hired to undertake the tree-cutting on Cape Town\u2019s mountain slopes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka <\/strong>When I started with the program, I didn\u2019t have any other job. I was always jobless, so I didn\u2019t have a choice. When Nature Conservancy came along, they advertised, and they say they are looking for people that will be doing invasive species clearing in the catchment areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAsiphe <\/strong>This is new for me, especially of the nature conservancy. Because in the town that I am from, the only kind of jobs that we could do, it\u2019s farming or in farms. So alien invasive plant removal was the new, was a new project for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThandeka was hired as a contractor, charged with building a team of other <\/em>women to join her up on the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThandeka: I\u2019ve got chainsaw operators, the people that are operating the machines, ladies operating machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David <\/strong>This idea of hiring women is not something that might occur to a lot of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThandeka: Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Are there some ways that you would rather have women on your team than men? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka We do need men in our teams, but I prefer more ladies than men. I\u2019m not \u2014I\u2019m not like a feminist, but they are loyal. I don\u2019t want to lie to you. They are very loyal. And they are so reliable. Women are reliable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people that can stand on anything are women. I promise you. And if things are getting tougher, you will stand with women. Most of them, they are single parents that are the heads of the houses. So even if somebody is \u2014feels like I can give up, who is going to assist? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, early in 2018, the work began\u2014to clear 250 square miles of invasive pines from the mountains of Cape Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, there are no roads up into those mountains. The only way up there\u2014is by helicopter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pilot flies each team high up into the mountains, where they\u2019ll live and work for two weeks at a time. They set up low, wind-resistant pup tents, with solar panels to power the radios and lights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They use clippers to snip the baby invasive trees; chainsaws to cut down the ones they can walk to; and hand saws to cut the ones on steep slopes or sheer vertical walls. (It was considered inadvisable to equip workers with chainsaws while hanging by ropes from the cliff side.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process begins with training, where Thandeka introduces prospective workers to the work they\u2019re signing up for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka It\u2019s sort of an orientation. You teach the person about their job, from, from the beginning. And you do some awarenesses about like snakes, the steep areas that you are working\u2014going to work on\u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David It sounded like you said snakes. (laughter)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka I did mention snakes, because when you are working in the veld, there is snakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That word there is veld, <\/em>V-E-L-D. It\u2019s the Afrikaans word for field\u2014in this case, the work areas up on the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThandeka <\/strong>You must be aware that there will be snakes. you must also be able to identify the snake. What kind of a snake that you saw? Also how poisonous is the snake? Even if maybe somebody has been bitten by the snake, you must know what \u2014what was what kind of snake was it? <\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd do you know what they teach them to do<\/em> to a snake when they find one? Nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThandeka You can\u2019t beat the snake, because the snake belongs in the velds. That\u2019s where it belongs. You can\u2019t take anything from the velds. And you mustn\u2019t chase snakes as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Wow. So they\u2019re not allowed to hurt the snake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka No, they are not. They are not. We are we are conserving the nature. because it\u2019s their territory. It\u2019s us that are coming to them, in their own space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David OK, well now the good stuff. Tell me about the work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka OK, all right. In the morning, the team leader or the crew leader, will brief the people about the hazards on the site and which area, then they will present the plan of how are we going to tackle the site? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[radio sounds and preparations run under]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then after that, they put on the harnesses, it\u2019s a belt, and then they put on all the equipment on, and then the health and safety of the group. We\u2019ll take each and every person before they go that they\u2019ve got everything with them, because it\u2019s safety, safety, safety all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
because those areas are very mountainous. They are very high\u2014high areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David And steep sometimes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka <\/strong>Verrrry steep. Very steep.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDavid Is it like a wall? or is it just more of\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka No, it\u2019s like a wall. It\u2019s like a wall. It\u2019s like five-thousand feet from the from\u2014 from the sea level. It\u2019s five thousand feet up. So just imagine. Sometimes the ropes that they use, it\u2019s two hundred meters going down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[sounds of buckle and rope]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Yes, so are you are you basically hanging from this rope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka Yes. Like you can move around, but a little bit from this side to this side and also, yeah, a little bit sideways, but not too much. Just like, for instance, you have a portion that you can clear, like maybe two meters. That\u2019s your area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David And is your heart just racing, or are you used to that now? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka When we started the heights, some of them, they were afraid of heights. they are used to it now. Sometimes when they are working, you will even hear them singing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Is it chainsaws? Is it \u2014is it handsaws? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka In some areas where it\u2019s not that steep, they use chainsaws. Otherwise, if the area is too steep, they do a ringbarking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ringbarking is removing a band of bark from all the way around a tree, like a belt. Once you\u2019ve ringbarked a tree, it can\u2019t drink water anymore\u2014you\u2019ve basically cut its water-intake pipes\u2014and it dies where it stands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David So Asiphe, when you\u2019re \u2014when you\u2019re up there, can you give me a list of all the things you have to be careful of? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asiphe: When you are in the mountain, first of all, you can get into a rock and then you slip and then you fall. It can be very hot, that maybe one worker falls because of dehydration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, you can be up there and then fire starts. And then there\u2019s no escape routes, that you will have to wait for the Rangers to come and get you. And also it sometimes happens that your chainsaw operator is busy cutting a tree, then a worker is passing while the tree is falling, so they don\u2019t see. Also, I can say maybe when one person is busy cutting a tree and then they cut their fingers, like maybe just open a small cut, and then they start bleeding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are reptiles up there and there are other animals, wild animals that can be scary. For example, there are baboons and stuff. Those are the things that happens up there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David OK, I\u2019m never going to complain about my job again. (all laugh) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2020, the COVID pandemic slowed the Cape Town work only slightly; the teams cleared 90% of the area they\u2019d targeted for that year. Now, the work is getting back up to speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[music]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there have been other Day Zero crises in recent years; Cape Town\u2019s not alone. In 2008, the Spanish drought was bad enough that the city of Barcelona had to import water from France. In 2014 and 2015, S\u00e3o Paulo in Brazil the biggest city in the Western Hemisphere faced a similar crisis; citizens were given water only two days a week. And, Australia, of course, has been in more or less perpetual drought since the 2000s, which led to the devastating 2020 wildfires. Those fires killed over three-billion animals, and burned an area the size of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Hawaii\u2014combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why, in the last 20 years, the Nature Conservancy has set up similar green-infrastructure projects in 40 cities around the world, producing more water, cleaner water, at a fraction of the cost of building gray infrastructure\u2014and conserving habitats in the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the way, I have no connection to the Nature Conservancy, other than being a fan; I just love the ingenious way they work. They come up with environmental projects that operate within <\/em>the system instead of against it\u2014devising ways to make it more profitable for stakeholders to conserve land and sea than to continue destroying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFrom a water perspective, the Cape Town project has been a splashing success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David And how much progress have you made so far? Can you \u2014can you see it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka Yes, because in some areas, when we started working there, you could see the area is a wetland, but it\u2019s dry. But now \u2014now that we\u2019ve cleared, it\u2019s damp now. You could see that there is a difference. It is damp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>The water now are running down to the rivers to the dams, to the rivers, because also when \u2014when there is invasive plants, they like to grow like together like this, then the area is dense. So now the penetration of water, it doesn\u2019t go \u2014like easily. But now\u2014 now that they are cut down, then the water will penetrate easily. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd from a social and economic perspective\u2014well, here\u2019s Thandeka to bring it all home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David You spoke earlier about empowering women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David: Does it work? Do you see growing confidence? Do you see women earning a living? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka Yes, I can see they, they are \u2014they they are confidence. And also they they, they, they are leadership skills that I couldn\u2019t see before. And yeah, they\u2019ve changed a lot. And also like, they can afford other things that they couldn\u2019t afford before. this program has made a difference in their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David How about your life, Asiphe \u2014any changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asiphe This program has changed me a lot. And also women in my town. For them, it\u2019s like a new life has began. I\u2019ve listened to them when they were planning what they are going to do, how they\u2019re going to achieve most of the things that they wanted in life. So this program really, really changed a lot of people\u2019s lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David And the last question, how long will this go on? How long will you keep doing it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thandeka At the moment, there is no end point. I will do it as long as I still\u2014 I still can, like I\u2019m until my pension. (laughs) <\/em> I\u2019m\u2014 mentoring other people so that it doesn\u2019t end with me.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20220107.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2018, following a historic three-year drought, the water sources in Cape Town, South Africa ran dry. It was the first major city to face Day Zero: when you\u2019d turn on the faucet\u2014and nothing would come out.More <\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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