Cape Town could be the first city to run out of water
I live in Cape Town, and this article is missing some points about whats been going on:<p>1. "Day 0" has been moved forward - we're now expected to run out of water 21 April.<p>2. The daily limit of water per person is 87l but only ~50% of consumers meet this target<p>3. This is considered a 1/1000 year event (in contrast to 1/100 experienced elsewhere in the country recently). However due to increased population this is being called "the new normal".<p>4. Water allocation between residential/agriculture was done at some national level, meaning the province wasn't able to manage the supplies correctly.<p>5. 6/7 water relief projects are behind schedule - these include desalination plants and aquifer pumps.<p>6. We lose 15% of our water through leaks - much lower than the world average but not as good as the best (around 10% in Australia and New Zealand)<p>Some other personal notes:
1. There has been talk of tapping the aquifers for decades - the studies haven't been prioritised and we still don't know how much we can safely take. The outlying areas of Cape Town are essentially marshes and during normal rainfall seasons are prone to flooding, so there is definitely some space but noone knows how much.<p>2. The city has lost R1.6b ($130m) in water fees due to reduced usage, so now we're facing a "drought tax". To me this is bullshit but thats a whole other post.<p>3. The restrictions should not be eased once the dams are full - with climate change and increasing population its only a matter of time until we run out of water and no amount of rainfall is going to help<p>4. When we run out of water there will be water trucks and collections points, but there has been no talk of sanitation - I suspect a lot of people are going to get really sick.