South Africa's Cape Town Could Run Out of Water in Less Than 90 Days!

The city could approach "Day Zero," when most taps run dry, by April 21, Mayor Patricia de Lille said.

AFP

Cape Town: One of South Africa’s largest cities and a popular tourist destination Cape Town, could soon be facing the worst ever crisis. After three years of unprecedented drought, the city has less than only 90 days worth of water in its reservoirs, which could make it the world’s first city to run out of water. The city could approach "Day Zero," when most taps run dry, by April 21, Mayor Patricia de Lille said. Lille added that its four million residents will have to start drastically cutting down on their water. She appealed to people on Twitter to conserve water:

It is important that all residents must continue to save water, despite the City’s work to secure new water sources. I cannot stress it enough: all residents must save water and use less than 87 litres per day.

— Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) January 11, 2018

If we continue to use more than 500 million litres of water per day we will reach Day Zero on 22 April 2018. We must avoid Day Zero and saving water is the only way we can do this. — Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) January 11, 2018

The dam levels are currently at 30 percent forcing authorities to cap water usage to 87 liters per day for each person. The city has also been scrambling to bring additional water online from various sources to avoid the impending disaster.

Prime locations have been identified to abstract more water from these three aquifers. Drill rigs are moving on site this week. The groundwater abstraction projects form part of the City’s programme to supply additional water from desalination, water recycling and groundwater. pic.twitter.com/pDrY7GHm3N — Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) January 11, 2018

The @CityofCT will drill in Strandfontein, Philippi, Wesbank, Bishop Lavis and Khayelitsha to look for the best abstraction points to tap water from the Cape Flats aquifer. pic.twitter.com/eDwoIauNBs — Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) January 11, 2018