The Three Decade-Long Drought

Cape town is located on the southwestern coast of South Africa. It is the largest city in South Africa, with a growing resident population of 3.7million. The climate of Cape Town is warm and dry, during the summer with mild rainy winters. The average temperature has increased by 0.14 degrees Celsius over the past 30 years and rainfall is expected to decrease by 9 by 2100 (Otto et al, 2018). Cape Town is well-known for its tourist industry and horticulture. 30% of the country’s gross regional product comes from the international trade of agricultural products (Wikipedia, 2019).

During 2015 and 2017, the western cape region suffered from a lack of rainfall. This led to the occurrence of ‘the worst drought since 1904’ and water shortages (Otto et al, 2018). Cape Town is home to six major reservoirs which are recharged by rainwater mostly and some groundwater sources (Parks et al, 2019). Due to the unexpected change in rainfall patterns and distributions, the reservoirs suffered from a lack of water over the 3 years. The continued excessive consumption and lack of investment in water supply infrastructure further exacerbated the problem of water shortage and put stress on the government as ‘Day Zero’ was approaching.

What is ‘Day Zero’?

Day Zero was introduced by the City of Cape Town to create more awareness amongst the inhabitants to manage their water resource. Government officials said that once freshwater supplies drop below 13.5%, most of the municipal water network will be shutdown (Parks et al, 2019). This means that the taps of Cape Town will essentially ‘run dry’. Residents will be allowed to collect water from communal standpipes; however, this is limited to 25 litres per person, per day (Imperial).

Fortunately, ‘Day Zero’ was delayed, preventing long queues at public water collection points. This was as a result of the public understanding and reducing their consumption of fresh water. Although this outcome was positive overall, agricultural usage of water declined, resulting in an economic loss of approximately R5.9 billion. This led to exports dropping by 13-20% (WWF, 2018; Wolski, 2018).

To solve this issue with unpredictable rainfall and climate change, Cape Town needs to place new strategies to manage its water resources. This could be done in several ways. Firstly, increasing water storage capacities will maximise the amount of water stored during wet periods, thus allowing the government to ‘tap into’ these stores during emergencies. Moreover, educating the population about managing water resources and setting limits on how much water can be consumed will reduce the overall usage. Finally, stormwater harvesting has proven to be a potentially successful method to use for non-potable purposes. Although the water must undergo treatment and the quality of the water can be questioned, it will increase the availability of freshwater supplies for domestic use, such as drinking (Rodina, 2017).