Posted on March, 06 2018
There is practically only one topic of conversation in Cape Town, South Africa, right now – and that is the water shortage.
Facing a drought of historic proportions and with dam levels having sunk to critical levels (25% on 6 February), Cape Town is facing the very real prospect of its taps running dry for the majority of the population of some four million people.
Given that Cape Town is a relatively developed city and popular tourist destination, the news has been reported around the world with some level of disbelief.
As of February 1, residents were being asked to use no more than 50 litres of water per person a day or face punitive rates, in an attempt to push back what has become known as Day Zero.
Day Zero is the name given to the day on which the dams will have sunk to 13,5% below which it would be virtually impossible to supply the bulk of residents with running water. The calculations for when Day Zero will dawn shifts depending on how much water is available in the big six dams that feed Cape Town, how much water residents are using on a daily basis and evaporation rates.
The hope remains that through careful management, Day Zero will be delayed long enough to allow the first of the winter rains to fall and for the city to bring augmentation schemes in the form of groundwater abstraction and desalination online.
But the rains are not guaranteed and all the augmentation projects have been delayed. In the face of this uncertainty, residents have been stockpiling bottled water, buying up rainwater tanks to store their own water and looking into alternative sanitation arrangements.
With its head office in Cape Town, WWF South Africa quickly realised that residents and businesses were looking for guidance from an independent, trusted voice in civil society. WWF-SA has a well-developed freshwater programme and the team working on this programme have been compiling weekly water files addressing topics ranging from sanitation to water purification for distribution to the media, corporates and interested individuals. These have been eagerly received.
Climate projections point to a much drier future for Cape Town and so this is now being talked about as a “new normal” for the city.
As Christine Colvin, Senior Manager Freshwater WWF–SA, told The Guardian in an interview: “Businesses and investors have heard the long-term projections but they haven’t heard the starting gun go off. If this drought can pull the trigger then that could be a good thing. If this is seen as a pressure test for the new normal, it will help us to adapt.”
To access the WWF Wednesday Water Files visit: www.wwf.org.za/waterfile
