A major coastal city is set to run out of water - and 'Day Zero' is approaching faster than anyone predicted
- Cape Town, South Africa has moved up its predictions for when the city will run out of water, with officials now saying they'll likely have to shut off the taps in early April.
- The city is urging people not to shower for more than a minute or two, but politicians say water usage in the city is up lately, not down.
- They're worried about "anarchy" if "Day Zero" arrives.
Cape Town is officially on track to turn off the faucets earlier than anyone predicted.
Breweries that normally bottle beer are switching to spring water, and private hotels are rushing to bring pricey desalination plants online as the city struggles - in vain - to get people to use less water.
On Monday, the City of Cape Town announced that the day when they will have to shut off the faucets, which they're calling "Day Zero," has been moved from April 21 to April 12.
The coastal city, one of Africa's most popular tourist destinations, is grappling with the worst drought conditions it has faced in over a century. Dam levels have decreased 1.4% since last week, according to new official reports, and city dams are now 27.2% full. When they reach 13.5% capacity, the city says it will be forced to turn off the taps and move to a bucket-brigade-style system.
"I personally doubt whether it is possible for a city the size of Cape Town to distribute sufficient water to its residents, using its own resources, once the underground water-pipe network has been shut down," Western Cape Premier Helen Zille wrote Monday in the Daily Maverick.
Premier Zille has asked President Jacob Zuma to declare a national disaster for the city, since Cape Town may need more police and military personnel if Day Zero arrives to "defend storage facilities" and deal with disease outbreaks as sanitation worsens. She also said officials hope to store some emergency water at military bases "for safety."
Cape Town officials say efforts to get people to cut back on their water usage haven't been working. The city has been urging every resident to consume less than 50 liters of municipal water a day, and to collect what they use when showering and hand washing and re-use that "grey water" to flush toilets and water plants.
Capetown, a city of 4 million, welcomes more than 1.5 million tourists a year, Deutsche Welle reports. The beach and sea-sport lover's haven is also a short distance from safaris and wine excursions.
Restaurants and hotels are asking tourists and visitors to do their part to conserve, too. At the One & Only Cape Town hotel, the staff removed bath plugs and started using recycled, filtered water in the pool. They've also installed water-saving shower heads and are encouraging guests at the five-star resort to "save like a local" and keep their showers to two minutes or less.
Some hotels are also contemplating spending hundreds of millions of dollars to install their own off-grid desalination plants so they can turn ocean water into a usable drinking and washing source.
South Africa's national weather service says it can no longer predict how long this drought might last, since "previous forecasting models have proved useless in the era of climate change." Although there's a thunderstorm in the forecast on the Western Cape, it's expected to drop less than half an inch of rain.
Meanwhile, city officials are still holding out hope that they can avoid "Day Zero" if consumers shift course and cut their water usage. Zille urges that "no one should be showering more than twice a week."
But many residents have started to stock up on water just in case. Pictures posted on social media show lines of shoppers already lining up to buy industrial-sized water jugs.
