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Set your Calendars for Day Zero by Uriel Bravo

Look at the forecast, the reporter says that it will be 65° today. Not too shabby. Wait, continue reading. 85% humidity. That’s a bummer, good thing that we can drink water without any worries,  right? Right? Well, not really. You’re in South Africa and you remember that there hasn’t been a lot of rainfall over the past three years. Welcome to the lives of those living in Cape Town, South Africa. One doesn’t truly know what they’re missing when they have to rely on 50 liters, or 100 Poland Spring Bottles of water per day, more so per family. Families in Cape Town are struggling to get enough water in the intense heat on the daily and many are ignoring what is actually going on.

50 liters of water per day is not enough. Can you believe that one person can use up to 100 gallons of water per day? To put it in terms of liters, 100 gallons is more than 350 liters per day (BBC). Now, imagine yourself with not being able to flush the toilet, not being able to take a warm bath or a cold shower, and not be able to do anything else that wastes your only source of drinking water.

The long awaited “Day Zero” is haunting the lives of the residents of Cape Town on the daily. Sources such as CNN and BBC are reporting July 9th the day that “the drought-stricken city will have to cut off taps to all homes and most businesses, leaving nearly all of the city’s 4 million residents without access to running water”. Cape Town is nearly the size of Los Angeles, so imagine the “City of Angels” in conditions so poor that tourism is becoming less and less likely.
Image result for day zero pictures
Because of the lack of water and the restraints being placed on the people of Cape Town, tourism, their most important means for the economy, has begun to decline. In order to conserve water in Cape Town, ”government officials are encouraging visitors and residents to limit their showers to 90 seconds, among other measures”. To add on, the lack of personal hygiene can lead to mental physical and mental disorders such as depression and dementia. There are also more chances of contracting several diseases due to the high levels of bacteria not being washed away. Now, in all honesty, does a place with a lack of showering or personal hygiene sound appealing. The hot weather and the lack of water are leading to less tourism in Cape Town which is not only hurting their economy but reducing ways for them to fix the water crisis itself.

The root cause of this problem is, as said earlier, the lack of rainfall over the past three years. They average around 464 mm of rainfall each year, which is extremely low compared to the 1680 mm of rainfall coming down in the United States. The lack of precipitation has messed up society and its long-standing traditions as a whole in Africa which has led to many unsanitary conditions as well. Their normal day to day lives has been altered because of the fear of “Day Zero”. Because of the little amount of water that they’re allowed to use, they aren’t able to flush the toilet nor take showers long enough to clean themselves. No one was prepared to experience the long drought that Cape Town was going to be suffering. There had been small amounts of rainfall in the past years but no one really paid close attention to the trend. The lack of attention from our part to the climate can lead to an unforeseeable future. Now it is Africa, but how long will it take for it to be India, China, or even the United States?


BY: URIEL BRAVO

Work Cited:
  • Browdie, Brian. “Cape Town is just the beginning of South Africa's spreading water crisis.” Quartz, Quartz, 9 Feb. 2018, qz.com/1203283/cape-town-water-crisis-day-zero-will-declared-a-national-disaster/
  • Farber, Tanya “Cape Town gets its first bitter taste of water wars”, 2018
  • “SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town Water Supply Crisis.” Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical Series, vol. 55, no. 1, 2018,
  • Schalkwyk, Lynette van. “We're Sorry.” What's next for Western Cape drought?, www.enca.com/opinion/whats-next-for-western-cape-drought.
  • Solander, Kurt C., and Cathy Jean Wilson. “The Cape Town drought: what is happening and will it happen again?” 2018,
  • South African Government, “Water and sanitation“, 2018

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