Here's a pic from my last few months of fieldwork in Cape Town this past winter; I stayed in Woodstock while I completed my work in the Western Cape Archives and conducted a Q-study with farmers in the Cape Flats. I was blessed with seeing some amazing sunrises and sunsets in the Mother City 💚

now the trick is to not drink all of these before christmas

Also, it has to be noted that the person writing up these meeting minutes had impeccable handwriting.

This puts a whole new spin on our current understanding water restrictions in Cape Town, specifically those implemented at the height of the water crisis. Every trip to archives really gets me so excited for this work.

And even more than 110 years ago, the City Engineer expressed concern that future generations would deal with even drier conditions. They presented data showing a twenty year decline in rainfall totals leading up to the implementation of these early restrictions.

Today I was sifting through meeting minutes from 1913 & already the City of Cape Town was deciding how & when to implement water restrictions due to low supply/little rainfall in the winter months. They were considering how best to conserve existing supply & how to supplement for the dry summers.