Heat, Power And Water

Heat, Water and Power – three words, which sum up the extended holiday period. The heat, when it has been significantly above 40 degrees, has been brutal. Power supply, which has helped those with air conditioners, fans and refrigerators, has been erratic, often non-existent for long periods whilst much the same can be said about water.

Without means of storage with water tanks, it’s hard to understand how people were able to cope. Mmopane, Gabane and Moshupa, not least, were without water for weeks on end.

Why was this not declared a disaster area? Or wasn’t it sufficiently disastrous? Some businesses would appear to have made a killing from these curious weeks of either far too much or far too little.  Have we ever before seen people queuing to buy six or more 10 litre bottles of purified water? And then there were those rushing to buy air conditioners for the first time, fans, humidifiers, air coolers, and deep freezers whilst the chemists must have run out of stock of salt pills and sun cream. How many people, I wonder, were overcome by heat and had to be given treatment? Probably we will never know.  But how did people in the past cope with heat? For a start, they slept outside which only rarely happens today.  They could do so because there were then fewer crooks - but that may have been because people had few household items which were worth stealing. The old stores may not have had vastly expensive refrigerated rooms but they did have very effective evaporation cool rooms.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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