It’s True: Cape Town’s Water Supply Is Three Months Away from a Shutdown

Three years of unforgiving drought in Cape Town, South Africa, have led to the once-unthinkable: A great world city is about to turn off the tap to its municipal water supply. The long-feared “Day Zero”—the point when the reservoirs serving Cape Town drop below the minimum levels needed to provide water safely—will arrive April 21, according to recent projections from the Western Cape Water Supply District.

Because we’re now in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere summer, it’s the dry season for Cape Town. There is very little chance that winter rains will kick in soon enough to prevent a few days or even a few weeks without municipal water. The city’s impressive water conservation efforts to date haven’t done the trick, and even a few stopgap desalination plants being rushed to completion are unlikely to avert Day Zero. At this point, the hydrologic hole dug by intense drought is simply too deep.

“Day Zero is the day that the water resource system runs out of water,” said Mark New, the AXA Research Chair in African Climate Risk at the University of Cape Town, in an email. What does this mean? “No water coming out the taps. Toilets cannot be flushed. Fire services cannot get water out of the fire hydrants. People will have to walk to water tankers to fill up drinking water bottles.” And there will be knock-on effects, such as schools considering whether they can operate with no water on campus.

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