The International Schools Review Forum

Just wondering if anyone working at a school in Cape Town has any info about how the water crisis will affect the schools or the teachers working there...

The ISs worth working at have water storage systems. As for ITs they mostly drink bottled water anyway and their housing also have water storage tanks and vacuum flask water delivered. The problem isnt a problem if you have coin.

Everyone in Cape Town is limited to 50 L per person per day and there is heavy pressure put on everyone to conform to this. This means that showers are limited to a couple minutes and many homes recycle their grey water or some homes may have rain collection tanks if you are lucky. Anyone going over this limit is fined huge amounts or if caught irrigating their lawns, washing their cars, etc. Most people, including expats normally drink tap water (it is extremely clean and safe). The crisis is forcing everyone to be much more environmentally aware. Once taps are turned off in May, it will be extreme chaos where everyone needs to queue up for water each day. Expats will not be immune to this.

Psyguy likes to respond to all threads but has no clue..

I was wondering. The bottled water thing had me confused as we drank the tap water when we visited SA. Thanks for clarifying!

@snowphantom
@Thames Pirate

Our experiences differ, mine were you showered/bathed, cooked, cleaned with tap water, but drank bottled. My housing had a water storage and recycling system. Im happy to contend that my scenario may not have been typical, as the issue of plumbing never really came up in discussion.

but i would think that PG is right in the sense that coin can get you water, if you need it, i.e. big bottled water. am i wrong?

v.

Well with the subsistence salaries that schools in Cape Town pay, buying tons of bottled water every week could be a stretch...

Hear hear buffalofan! We looked at Capetown when we recruited last year and we were seeing salaries around $25,000 USD - but you got a new leased VW Golf!

Salaries are pretty low in Capetown, theyre on par with the LCSA, though its generally a full OSH package. Bottled water is pretty cheap though (or at least was), but again no one was bathing with bottled or bubbler water, just drinking and maybe cooking so the expense wasnt really anything noticeable.

Yes you can buy bottled water for cheap (now) but there simply won't be any water left in grocery stores once the taps are turned off. I've seen water turned off for 2 days in SA and every store is out of bottled water so you'll need to queue up like everyone else for your allotted 20L of water each day.

@psyguy "The ISs worth working at have water storage systems. As for ITs they mostly drink bottled water anyway and their housing also have water storage tanks and vacuum flask water delivered. The problem isnt a problem if you have coin."

So from your own personal travel experience, you deduce that all ITs drink bottled water and all their housing has water tanks just from your own experience or did you do a survey of all ITs in the area to confirm this claim? A standard logical fallacy at its finest.

@snowphantom

its not a logical fallacy at all, but yes I took my living experience and observations and extrapolated it, thats what everyone does, your experience of reality is limited to YOUR five senses, what else would you have to perceive and derive meaning from the world but your own experiences. Again, water was an issue that warranted discussion at the time I was living in Capetown. No, I did not employ a research methodology that included survey research.

@Psyguy

Actually, that's the exact definition of a anecdotal logical fallacy which is "using personal experiences as an isolated example to make general claims". You employ Trumpish logical fallacies in your arguments like when he says "it's freezing and snowing in New York, there is no such thing as Global Warming"

You made a claim that " ITs mostly drink bottled water and their housing also have storage tanks.." based on your one isolated experience to make it appear as a true statement or fact. You do this over and over in threads and its exhausting.

This is what he does. Did it on the Germany thread recently. Just let him have the last word. It's obvious to readers who knows what they are talking about and who is blowing smoke. You will just end up talking in circles. You have clarified the situation beautifully, and you can always correct misconceptions as they arise, but no point in arguing a point you have already made. Thanks for sharing what you know!

@snowphantom

No its actually not, that logical fallacy requires a premise and conclusion, Im not doing that Im reporting an observation and experience. Im not makinga general claim at all, Ive stated that anything I post is anything more than my experience, and my observations or from trusted resources. Further even if I was making a claim, its not isolated. It was observed repeatedly over a period of time, was confirmed by the property agent, and reinforced (instructionally, "this is how it works" by other ITs/staff.
You employ straw-man arguments that anything less than some published research based claim is dismissed. While observational data has limitations Ive never indicated or implied it doesnt.
Yeah it is exhausting having to identify that your position is exactly based on no more or superior data than mine, your claims are those of one individual, collected over X period of time and based on Y experiences. I dont see any sources cited in your claims by no greater validity than @snowphantom says so, your claims are no more self authenticating because you deem them so. Why should I substitute your position and your observations and your experiences for my own, because you say so.

@Thames Pirate

Yes we do know who not to listen too both about anything European and anything equestrian.