Cape Town's municipal services a century ago.

Abstract

• Opsomming: In die jare tagtig van die vorige eeu het toestande in Kaapstad veel te wense oorgelaat, veral uit die oogpunt van die stadsingenieur. As snelgroeiende dorp met 'n totale bevolking van ongeveer 40 000 het Kaapstad oor min van die geriewe beskik wat in 'n moderne stad verwag word. Voordat die Molteno-reservoir op die plaas Oranjezicht in 1886 voltooi is, was die watervoorraad onvoldoende. Die stowwerige, ongeplaveide strate wat in die somer met seewater natgespuit moes word, het na die reën gou modderig geword. Groot gedeeltes van die dorp was nie gerioleer nie en waar wel riole was, was dit dikwels verstop as gevolg van onbeheerde aanbouings en rommelstorting. Krisisse met betrekking tot openbare gesondheid het gevolglik van tyd tot tyd voorgekom wanneer maagkoors uitgebreek het, waarskynlik as gevolg van plaaslike onhigiëniese toestande. Die vraagstukke wat die stadsingenieur van hierdie stad in wording moes hanteer, het inderdaad baie van die hedendaagse probleme verskil.• Summary: Conditions in Cape Town in the 1880s left much to be desired, especially when one looks at it from the city engineer's point of view. A boom town at that stage with a total population of approximately 40 000, Cape Town offered few of the amenities associated with a modern city. The water-supply was inadequate until the completion of the Molteno Reservoir on Oranjezicht farm in 1886. The dusty unpaved roads had to be wetted with seawater in the dry season. However, they quickly turned into mud after the rains. Many parts of the town were unsewered, and where they existed the sewers very often were blocked by uncontrolled building alterations or the dumping of rubbish. No wonder public health was brought to a crisis at intervals by epidemics of typhoid caused by local insanitary conditions. Very dissimilar to those of today, indeed, were the problems the city engineer of this town, growing into a city, had to handle.