{"id":847,"date":"2018-02-25T12:12:49","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T12:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/?p=847"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:05:11","slug":"life-without-water-need-know-cape-towns-day-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/life-without-water-need-know-cape-towns-day-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Without Water: All You Need to Know About Cape Town\u2019s Day Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: Cape Town, South Africa, is running out of water. We've all heard the warnings, but it seems we haven't listened. Media reports say \"Day Zero\" will hit by April 12, 2018, even sooner than the April 22nd prediction, unless things change fast. Let's break down what Day Zero means, how people are fighting the water shortage, and the clever ways they're saving water. We'll also look at other cities at risk and what solutions can help communities facing severe shortages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Day Zero<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Simply put, Day Zero is when the taps in Cape Town, South Africa's second-biggest city and a popular tourist spot, will go completely dry. It's every person's worst fear, especially when you're used to water gushing out the moment you turn a tap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How Are People Coping with It?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: As you can imagine, people are getting creative to save water. Here are some of the ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: They're recycling water to flush toilets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Showers are cut down to just 90 seconds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Hand sanitizer is way more popular than traditional hand washing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: People are actually promoting unwashed hair as a sign of social responsibility.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Some collect water from pipes fed by an underground spring.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Others strain water leftover from boiling potatoes into a bucket.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: A few even use recycled tap water to water their plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Some are simply leaving the city to ease the burden for a while.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: Sales of buckets, jars, and vases have shot up as people hoard water.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How Day Zero Became a Reality?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Several factors led to Day Zero. The biggest ones include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: The country has suffered its worst drought in over a century.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: The metro area's population has exploded, now over 4 million.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: The climate is changing much faster than anyone expected.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Carelessness<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: It's a sad truth that even with Day Zero looming, many residents still use water freely. People are using 86 million liters more than the target. Unfortunately, most haven't grasped how serious this is, or they just don't care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Action<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: To change attitudes, the city put a new rule in place on February 1, 2018: each person can use only a little over 13 gallons, or 50 liters, of water per day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: That 50-liter limit is incredibly tight. Think about it: laundry and dishes take 18 liters, a 90-second shower uses 15 liters. Washing hands needs three liters, cooking about two. You need two liters for drinking, and one if you have a dog. Do all that, and you've blown your 50-liter quota, leaving no water for another toilet flush or shower.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Drinking Water Woes<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Many citizens and tourists also say the tap water isn't safe to drink. Some report their kids had stomach issues, others say it tastes funny.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Going a Long Way and Dealing with Long Queues<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Instead of cutting back, some people have started getting water from nearby communities. This has caused water problems in those areas too. Others stand in long lines for tiny amounts of water. To shorten these queues, city officials plan to send the flow to a nearby swimming pool. Bottled water demand is skyrocketing, with new stock selling out in minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Parched Wells and Dams<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: The sight of nearly empty wells and dams is truly frightening. The worst part? Water has vanished from Cape Town's largest reservoir, Theewaterskloof dam. Satellite images show water disappearing for the last seven years, yet nothing concrete was done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Locals say they've never seen anything like it. They're clearly blaming the municipality for this lack of water, especially since officials knew about the coming drought. Citizens are visibly angry, and they want this fixed, fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Other Cities with Water Woes<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Cape Town isn't alone in its water crisis. Many other cities are facing, or have faced, similar problems. Here are 11 of them:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>S\u00e3o Paulo<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: One of the world's top 10 most populated cities, S\u00e3o Paulo, went through a water crisis in 2015. Their main reservoir dropped below 4% capacity. At one point, the city had less than 20 days of supply, and water theft was common. A long drought and poor planning by authorities caused this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Beijing<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Beijing faced severe water scarcity in 2014. Each person had only 145 cubic meters of fresh water a year. The World Bank says less than 1,000 cubic meters per person yearly is critical. China has 20% of the world's population but only 7% of its fresh water. Its reserves fell by 13% between 2000-2009. In 2015, about 40% of Beijing's water was deemed polluted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Bangalore<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: This Indian city is growing incredibly fast, becoming the country's tech hub. Authorities struggle to provide water for its booming population. The city needs to overhaul its plumbing, as a report found about half its drinking water goes to waste. To make matters worse, 85% of the city's lakes are polluted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Cairo<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: The Nile River, which provides 97% of Egypt's water, is getting dirtier every day. Untreated agricultural and residential waste is to blame. Egypt ranks high among lower-middle-income countries for deaths caused by water pollution. The UN predicts critical water shortages there by 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Moscow<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Thanks to its Soviet-era industrial past, Russia deals with a lot of water pollution. About 70% of the country's surface water supplies residents. Officials admit that 35-60% of Russia's drinking water reserves don't meet basic sanitary standards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jakarta<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Indonesia's capital faces rising sea levels. Only about half the city's residents get piped water; the rest dig illegal wells to meet their needs. These illegal wells have drained underground aquifers, and now about 40% of the city is below sea level. Even with heavy rains, these aquifers aren't refilling because asphalt and concrete stop open fields from absorbing water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>London<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: London often comes to mind when people think of water shortages. The city gets 80% of its water from the Lea and Thames rivers. Its average annual rainfall is just 600 mm, making things harder. The city also has a high waste rate of 25%. Experts predict water supply issues by 2025 and severe shortages by 2040.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tokyo<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Next is the Japanese capital, which gets enough rainfall for four months a year. Because of this, many buildings have systems to collect and use rainwater. Around 70% of the city's 30 million people rely on surface water. If the rain slows, the city could face water shortages. Officials have worked to cut waste from leaks, getting it down to just 3%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Istanbul<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: According to Turkish government data, Istanbul has faced water stress since 2016, when the per capita supply dropped below 1,700 cubic meters. Local experts say if nothing changes, the situation will turn into water scarcity by 2030. Istanbul already experiences water shortages during drier months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Mexico City<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: For Mexico City's 21 million residents, water shortages are a part of life. One in five gets tap water for only a few hours a day, while 20% have it for part of a day. The city imports about 40% of its water and hasn't yet built a large-scale wastewater recycling operation. About 40% of this precious resource is also lost due to problems in the piping system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Miami<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Miami's main water source, the Biscayne Aquifer, was contaminated by the Atlantic Ocean in the early 20th century because of a project. So, people might get seawater mixed with their daily drinking water. Sea levels are also rising, thanks to breaching underground defense barriers in recent decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Solution<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Are you surprised by how many cities are at risk? It's time to think about solutions for your own city or town. A smart move is to invest in a <\/span><<span style=\"font-weight: seawater desalination water maker<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. These systems can turn brackish or salty water from any natural source into safe, great-tasting drinking water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: The size of the system you pick will depend on your community's needs. If it's a<\/span> small community, then a small system would meet your needs deftly and if the needs are larger, you might want to invest in the latest <\/span><<span style=\"font-weight: system<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: that can produce up to 1 lakh gallons a day. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: In case you are not sure about which system is perfect for you, you can trust AMPAC USA to visit your location, map your current and future needs of this clear liquid and either offer a perfect product or design a new one for you. Creating custom <\/span><<span style=\"font-weight: reverse osmosis<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: and <\/span><<span style=\"font-weight: seawater desalination water maker<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: is our specialty, and you can benefit endlessly from it. Call us now to know more!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: Sources<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n \\\t<\/p>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/btn\/story\/s4804140.htm<\/span><\/li>\n<p> \\\t<\/p>\n<li><<span style=\"font-weight: https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2018\/01\/24\/africa\/cape-town-water-crisis-trnd\/index.html<\/span><\/li>\n<p> \\\t<\/p>\n<li><<span style=\"font-weight: http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-42982959<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Related reading: <You Need To Know About A Desalination! - Ampac USA, <You Need To Know About A 5 Stage Reverse Osmosis System - AMPAC USA, <All-You-Need-To-Know Guide On Marine Watermakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cape Town, South Africa is on the verge of running out of the water, a reality we have all been warned against and which we have all neglected. According to media sources, the Day Zero will arrive early on April 12, 2018, as compared to the earlier predictions of April 22, 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reverse-osmosis","category-water-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89618,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/89618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}