Remember Paul Baise? He’s the guy in the image above, who was selling large tanks of water to Constantia residents during the drought.
Last time we saw Baise, he was charged with illegally selling water, as well as throttling his neighbour, Kevin McGivern.
McGivern outed Baise for selling mountain water intended for personal use by Constantia residents.
Now, reports News24, Baise has received a directive from the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Blue Scorpions to stop selling his water.
Unfortunately for Baise, McGivern is still on the case.
Baise’s neighbour Kevin McGivern said he had seen water trucks come to be filled at least twice since the Blue Scorpions’ directive had been issued.
“There may be more, I am not monitoring it. It was just co-incidental that I saw the trucks,” McGivern said on Tuesday.
But Water Affairs and Sanitation said they know about Baise’s “release of water” and he was complying with their instructions.
The Department of Water and Sanitation said that they met Baise on his property. He told them that there was still water in his tanks.
“We told him that he should release it to the owner of the tanks as the owner needed the tanks back empty. Mr Baise has been complying with our instructions to release the water to the tanks’ owner….We are still going to follow up because this process should be coming to an end,” the DWS statement said.
Baise told them the three tanks held 16 500 litres altogether.
The Blue Scorpions shut down Baise’s water-selling operation in April. Much of the water was being sold to a company that fills swimming pools.
When asked about the emptying process, Baise said in April that 2 000 litres had been taken off, so there was “about 14 000 litres left”.
McGivern is not happy with Baise’s progress:
McGivern said he and Baise were allowed to draw water from the mountain stream behind their Rhodes Drive, Constantia properties through “a half inch pipe” for household use only.
“Who is checking? There is nothing more I can do if law enforcement can’t get its act together,” McGivern said.
When Baise spoke to News24 on Tuesday, he said he did not know how much water was left in the tanks, but said it was about 12 000 to 14 000 litres.
He said he had another 9 000 litres stored elsewhere on the property.
Meanwhile, SANParks has applied to the Western Cape High Court for an interdict against Baise, and Baise has launched legal proceedings against SANParks for cutting his pipes running from the stream.
I’m sure McGivern will keep everyone informed as the case goes on.
[source:news24]
