Cape Town faces Day Zero: what happens when the city turns off the taps?

[Peter1469]

Cape Town faces Day Zero: what happens when the city turns off the taps?

No sure why they didn't invest in desalination plants. They are going to have riots on their hands when the water is shut off.

In 10 weeks engineers will turn off water for a million homes as this South African city reacts to one-in-384-year drought. The rich are digging boreholes, more are panic-buying bottled water, and the army is on standby.

The head of Cape Town’s disaster operations centre is drawing up a plan he hopes he never has to implement as this South African city on the frontline of climate change prepares to be the first in the world to turn off the water taps.“We’ve identified four risks: water shortages, sanitation failures, disease outbreaks and anarchy due to competition for scarce resources,” says Greg Pillay. “We had to go back to the drawing board. We were prepared for disruption of supply, but not a no-water scenario. In my 40 years in emergency services, this is the biggest crisis.”


The plan – being drawn up with the emergency services, the military, epidemiologists and other health experts – is geared towards Day Zero, the apocalyptically named point when water in the six-dam reservoir system falls to 13.5% of capacity.

In place of piped water, the city will establish 200 water collection points, scattered around the city to ensure the legally guaranteed minimum of 25 litres per person per day within 200 metres of every citizen’s home.

This will be a major burden on municipal coffers. The estimated cost of installing and running the new system for three months is 200m rand (£12m). Instead of selling water, it will be given away for free, which will mean R1.4bn in lost revenue.

[nathanbforrest45]

Socialist in action.


In the local government elections of 18 May 2011, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won an outright majority, taking 135 of the 221 council seats. The African National Congress, the national ruling party, received 73 seats.^[48] As a result of this victoryPatricia de Lille, the DA mayoral candidate, was inaugurated as Executive Mayor on 1 June.

[Crepitus]

Cape Town faces Day Zero: what happens when the city turns off the taps?

No sure why they didn't invest in desalination plants. They are going to have riots on their hands when the water is shut off.

I've been following this for a while, still have friends there so I hear about it fairly regularly.

They did invest in something like half a dozen desalination plants, canals/pipelines, new reservoirs, all that stuff. There are several problems though. Forst, they spread themselves too thin. They should have concentrated on one or two of the projects and shelved the rest. Every politically powerful person had their own pet and nobody would back down. Second corrupt contractors have basically ascended with their money leaving half finished projects. Third a large portion of the wealthier folks just refuse to ration. The elites are still watering their lawns and filling their swimming pools. That's while the average individual is being asked to exist on 13 gallons a day.

Riots are more than a possibility.

[Crepitus]

Socialist in action.


In the local government elections of 18 May 2011, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won an outright majority, taking 135 of the 221 council seats. The African National Congress, the national ruling party, received 73 seats.^[48] As a result of this victoryPatricia de Lille, the DA mayoral candidate, was inaugurated as Executive Mayor on 1 June.

Educate yourself before you speak. African national Congress took most seats back in 2016. The failed projects and corrupt elites are largely theirs.

[Crepitus]

Socialist in action.


In the local government elections of 18 May 2011, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won an outright majority, taking 135 of the 221 council seats. The African National Congress, the national ruling party, received 73 seats.^[48] As a result of this victoryPatricia de Lille, the DA mayoral candidate, was inaugurated as Executive Mayor on 1 June.

DA btw is centrist, not socialist anyway.

[Dr. Who]

Cape Town faces Day Zero: what happens when the city turns off the taps?

No sure why they didn't invest in desalination plants. They are going to have riots on their hands when the water is shut off.

Sounds like they thought they would have more time. The desalination plants are two years down the road.

I don't think that the people in the townships are going to riot. Possibly the middle classes who are not used to roughing it.

[Peter1469]

Sounds like they thought they would have more time. The desalination plants are two years down the road.

I don't think that the people in the townships are going to riot. Possibly the middle classes who are not used to roughing it.

Certainly the middle class will. Perhaps the lower class won't if they can pull off their plan to have a water distribution site within every 200 meters of everyone- something I think is not possible. But for the poor it could be two miles. They would suck it up.

[Crepitus]

Sounds like they thought they would have more time. The desalination plants are two years down the road.

I don't think that the people in the townships are going to riot. Possibly the middle classes who are not used to roughing it.

They did think they would have more time. Too many people have not been complying with the rationing.

[Dr. Who]

They did think they would have more time. Too many people have not been complying with the rationing.

Yes, watering lawns when people are recycling water is pretty selfish.

[Peter1469]

Yes, watering lawns when people are recycling water is pretty selfish.

And filling swimming pools and maintaining golf courses.