Cape Town braces itself for ‘Day Zero’

CAPE TOWN: Cape Town is in the grip of a catastrophic three-yearlong drought as winter rains have repeatedly failed causing dam levels to drop to dangerously low levels.

South Africa’s second city is now facing the prospect of having to turn the taps off under a so-called “Day Zero” scenario to conserve the city’s remaining water supplies.

On that day, city officials will be forced to cut off the normal water supply to 75% of the city’s homes -- more than one million households.

Instead, families and some commercial users will be forced to queue at 200 water collection points across the city to collect a daily allocation of 25 litres until water reserves are boosted.

Authorities have said that the collection sites will likely be guarded by police or military personnel.

At the start of February, the target for personal daily water usage was slashed from 87 litres to 50 litres.

A toilet flush uses nine litres. It is hoped that usage cuts will buy the city time to find a solution -- or for the rains of the southern winter to refill depleted dams.

Among the other plans being considered to avert a shut-off is an increase in desalination efforts with the first city-run plant expected to come on line later this month. However, the plant will initially produce only two million litres a day. The city’s demand is almost 600 million litres.

Water is also being trucked in from elsewhere.

However, what officials fear is that “Day Zero” keeps shifting as it depends on the amount of water above 450 million litres used by the city each day.

For each day it exceeds that target, the shut-off date draws nearer. It is currently forecast for May 11.