It’s no longer coming. Our underwater reservoirs are running dry (most of them have crossed the point of no return), and our deserts are getting bigger and are devastating more population centers. (I last wrote about this problem a few years ago .)
And, now, one of the biggest cities in Africa is running dry. Capetown. With 4 million residents. Which makes this the second failed city. Sao Paulo, Brazil took the first prize position.
As we know happens from time to time in California when reservoirs run low, Capetown is in year 3 of a drought. Water use in Capetown had already been limited to 23 gallons a day in anticipation of the water Armageddon. But, now, folks will have to travel to some 200 places around town to collect their water rations, as the taps are shut off.
How much water will be provided to residents? 13 gallons per person. More importantly- can you imagine carrying 26 gallons (assuming you have a plastic container of that size) of water for you and your spouse to your home. (About 25% of the population is poor.) You DO know that water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon, right?
Of course, this means no more car washing (with city water, but employing reused water is ok), watering lawns, etc. But, those are common sense rules, akin to locking the barnyard door AFTER the horse has escaped.
Capetown’s water usage currently amounts to some 142 MGD (millions of gallons of water per day.) Which is slightly more than half of its previous, normal consumption of 260 MGD.
It doesn’t help that the municipality and the national government don’t agree on any policies. To compound this breach, the agricultural sector is allotted 30% of the total water supply by the national government. And, Capetown shares the rest of the water with a bunch of other nearby municipalities. And, has spent zippo in building new dams. . (Maybe you are recognizing this sounds an awful lot like what obtains across the US.)
Except now, given that Armageddon is here, the government is rushing to build desalination plants.
And, until they come on line, it’s highly likely the water ration is going to drop to 6.5 gallons per person per day. (We use about 10X that amount of water in the USA.) To ensure the peace, the army will be called out when this happens. (The condition is blithely called Zero Day.)
Oh, yeah. You know why there’s a drought? No, it’s not the one in every 300 year weather pattern you expect. It’s because climate change rendered the region hotter and drier than ever over the last century. So, this problem is only going to get worse!
By the way, even with the massive desalination plant coming on line, Melbourne, Australia is rushing to be the third big city to catch this contagion.
Caveat permalum bibit aquam…. (As opposed to ‘buyer beware’, this Latin phrase warns those who wish to drink water…)
It seems as if we humans only learn the hard way. As someone likes to say, sad.
Alana recently posted..Another Year for Greasy Beans?
It turns out that part of South Africa’s problem is that they don’t like Israel. So, they wouldn’t adopt its policies or accept its help. After all, why would you take help from the one nation that converted deserts to farms, has a thriving water reuse program, and is, for the first time ever, on the plus side of its water reserves.