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Quiz yourself on Water Resource ManagementGet your flashcardsBuild my revision planTrack my progress💧 Day Zero: The Day the Taps Were Turned Off
Day Zero had originally been set for April 2018. Then the city realised the reservoirs were draining faster than expected. Officials moved it forward. Then forward again. Cape Town was on track to become the first major city in the modern world to run out of water.
It didn't happen — but only just. Three years of drought, a growing population, ageing infrastructure, and complacency had pushed a wealthy, modern African city to the edge of catastrophe. Residents cut their use from 200 litres per person per day to 50. They placed buckets in showers. They flushed toilets only when absolutely necessary. Day Zero was postponed, then cancelled — but the message was unmistakeable. Water security is not a problem of the developing world. It is a problem of the whole world.
And the numbers make it starker still: right now, 2 billion people are already living in water-stressed countries. By 2050, that figure could rise to 4 billion — half the world's population. Water is not running out, exactly. But the gap between where water exists and where people need it is widening, year by year.
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