By Kayla Vestergaard
Cape Town is expected be the first city in the world to run out of public water, and it will happen in less than four months. As of February 6th, “Day Zero” — when the Big Six dams fall below 13.5% capacity — is predicted to be May 11th, 2018.
Residents have each been restricted to 13 gallons of water a day. For reference, leaving the tap on while brushing teeth for two minutes wastes about 5 gallons. Tourists, despite adding only approximately 1-3% to Cape Town’s population, are encouraged to similarly limit their daily usage. Signs are up in hotels to remind visitors about the crisis and encourage 2-minute showers as well as limited linen changes. Without these measures, city-wide water deprivation would be upon residents much sooner. In most developed countries, nine gallons of water are spent per person per day just for flushing. Imagine how much water is being conserved simply by following the local toilet standard of “if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down!”
Currently, bottled water is a key resource for residents. However, its usage is far less efficient than a steady supply of clean public water, and there are long-term consequences of plastic in our oceans. Additionally, it can be easy to forget that supplies of water bottles are finite when they have thus far been reliable in times of extended crisis. Unfortunately, water bottle companies have a history of extracting water with little mind to their environmental impacts. The last thing Cape Town residents would want is for other communities to suffer a similar water deprivation that is exacerbated by companies selling the communities’ natural resources to alleviate their own city’s shortage.
The drought, which stretches into its third year, has made finding alternative water sources difficult. Farmers in the Elgin and Grabouw region of South Africa have recently given 10 billion liters of water to Cape Town from their relative surplus, but this has only postponed Day Zero about twenty days, from mid-April to May 11th.
Mitigations include desalination projects and drilling deeper bore holes. However, more will need to be done to find long-term solutions. The desalination plant at Strandfontein Pavilion, while on time, will only churn out in March the first 2 million liters out of an anticipated 7 million a day – still far short of the 500 million liters Cape Town currently uses daily.
Ideas for cutting back on water usage can be modeled after Melbourne, Australia, which has used a variety of methods, including public education campaigns, shower timers, and rebates for water-efficient appliances, since a drought hit in the early 2000’s. Cape Town’s water usage numbers are similar to those of Melbourne before its water-saving programs, and can be cut down to similarly sustainable numbers. Much of this will be made possible by significant commitments from South Africa’s hotel and agriculture sectors, which will reduce their water usage by 50 and 60 percent, respectively.
Despite the shortage, Cape Town is strongly encouraging travelers. Tourism is an essential part of the city’s economy, and an industry shrinkage would make it harder to afford long term water management programs.
