Thank you for your comment semarumi.  I am sorry I could not find the quote on the links you provided.  However, I can assure you there is no arrogance.  We rely on hydrologists all the time for advice, and meteorologists for weather predictions.  There is not always an agreed view from the experts.  I was not in the meetings you refer to with the City of Cape Town.  But in 2013/14 we had a near record rainfall year, and in 2014 the dams were overflowing, while we experienced electricity load-shedding.  That is where our attention had to be  --  and after the drier 2015, we had expert predictions that things would improve in 2016.  And again in 2017. We had clear memories of having to mothball the very expensive desalinator in Mossel Bay because the rains came again.  And in any case, the national Department had run out of money for major infrastructure, so we could not have commissioned another desalinator anyway.