The ominous warning sign greeting travellers in loos
With 5 million international visitors last year, the South African coastal city of Cape Town is one of the most popular locations in the world. But it’s also got a big problem.
Visitors touching down one of the world’s most multicultural cities have been greeted with sings ranging from warnings like, “Don’t waste a drop!” to desperate pleas for help like, “Our taps will run dry if we don’t act now”.
Cape Town is enduring a severe water crisis after three years of poor rains. Water levels in the city’s reservoirs are at 33 per cent and there are real warnings that without any action, a day where the taps will run dry is looming.
Dear Visitors to Cape Town! Please help us and #savewater as we are experiencing water crisis... use less than #87litres per day. Speak to our staff about water saving measures at #oonkloof. pic.twitter.com/gyImscF7bz
— O on Kloof Hotel&Spa (@OonKloofHotel) December 22, 2017
Bob Scholes, a professor of systems ecology at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, explained the very real threat in an interview with Bloomberg.
“Running out of water in places that have a highly developed water infrastructure is not that common,” he said.
“I know of no example of a city the size of Cape Town running out of water. It would be quite catastrophic.”
Taps are turned off once dam levels drop below 13.5 per cent, which would prompt a situation where residents would have to line up at checkpoints around the city to collect daily water rations. Some experts say that day could come as early as April 29.
Tourists have been asked to do everything they can to conserve water.
“We have to change our relationship with water,” Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille told Bloomberg.”
“We have to plan for being permanently in a drought-stricken area.”
What are your thoughts?
Hero image credit: Twitter / New York Times