Forester Network | By: Janice Kaspersen | January 30, 2018:
As you might have heard, Cape Town, South Africa, is about to run out of water. Officials have predicted that “Day Zero,” when the water reserves drop so low that they’ll have to shut off the supply to the taps, will occur within the next few months.
Despite severe restrictions on use—50 liters per day per person, down from 87 liters—the water level in the reservoirs is still dropping.
Once the taps are dry, officials say, residents will be allowed just 25 liters per person per day, which they will have to pick up from collection points around the city.
The city is anticipating calling in the military to oversee the process and prevent people from taking more than their share.
Ongoing drought and the city’s growing population are responsible for the shortage. Cape Town, the country’s second-largest city, has about four million people, and the crisis has been disastrous for the economy and the tourist industry.
The ideal solution is rain—and, barring that, probably expensive importation of water from elsewhere—but an experiment taking place halfway around the world might offer hope for other cities that someday find themselves in a similar predicament…
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