Sloshing through the maze of tunnels beneath Cape Town offers a fresh perspective on the city, writes Brent Meersman.
Going underground has particular connotations in a country like South Africa, with its history of subversive activity. Such associations are not entirely lost on the adventure tour arranged by Figure of 8 (FO8) that takes one into the labyrinth of the little-known tunnels that lie beneath the city of Cape Town.
Entry is slightly undignified: through a cast-iron manhole and down a shaft, using the holes left by missing bricks as footholds. The temperature inside is temperate. A cap is a good idea for warding off the cobwebs on the roof of the tunnel. Excellent headlamps and gumboots are provided — don’t bring your own, FO8’s boots have excellent grip, which many garden-variety wellies do not.
The idea for the tour arose from research done by water campaigner Caron von Zeil. The tour is usually offered as a team-building exercise by FO8. They did it first in 2009. The minimum group is 10. The largest was 80, when the Cape Natural History Society did it. Andrew Boraine, the chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, has been down and found it an eye-opening experience.
Some of Von Zeil’s revelations are shocking. Precipitation from the famous, almost daily appearance of the tablecloth over Table Mountain is sponged up by the fynbos, percolated through the mountain, and released in bountiful artesian springs. The amount of water is in the millions of litres a day. Some is piped, thanks to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, to irrigate the thirsty Green Point golf course, but nearly every other drop of this fresh water — on a conservative calculation, 40 litres a day for every man, woman and child in the city bowl — flows straight under the city and into the sea.
Bizarrely, this water, the very reason for the founding of Cape Town — now at the mercy of periodic water restrictions — was scrapped from the national asset register in 1994.
Von Zeil has proposed a number of projects for proper stewardship of the water. In the past 18 months she says she has experienced co-operation and recognition from the city authorities, but little has happened.
If Cape Town is going to get its act together to make better use of its vital water resources, perhaps more underground activity will be necessary — of the old-fashioned political kind.
Tours can be booked with Figure of 8.
Full story via Mail & Guardian
