Cape Town could be the first city to run out of water

Post by avn2109 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 8:30 PM UTC

chesimov wrote: post #100

logingone wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the policy being set at national level - I've seen mention of the Western Cape seceding - how realistic was that, and has this had any effect on that? I'm ex Durban/Johannesburg, abandoned the rainbow nation 20 or so years ago with zero confidence in its future, and I'm afraid it was the right call; part of me would love to return, and the WC (there's a pun there) seceding would interest me for a move there…

Well, there's an exodus from the rest of the country to the W. Cape. They call it 'semigration'. Property was up 12% a while ago when all other provinces saw a decline I think (except Gauteng; they were up 3%). As a young person of the wrong demographic here though, myself and most of my friends are preparing for possible departure for a few different reasons. If you are already established in a field with an oversea…

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

logingone wrote: post #68

overlordalex wrote: post #3

I live in Cape Town, and this article is missing some points about whats been going on: 1. "Day 0" has been moved forward - we're now expected to run out of water 21 April. 2. The daily limit of water per person is 87l but only ~50% of consumers meet this target 3. This is considered a 1/1000 year event (in contrast to 1/100 experienced elsewhere in the country recently). However due to increased population this is b…

Regarding the policy being set at national level - I've seen mention of the Western Cape seceding - how realistic was that, and has this had any effect on that? I'm ex Durban/Johannesburg, abandoned the rainbow nation 20 or so years ago with zero confidence in its future, and I'm afraid it was the right call; part of me would love to return, and the WC (there's a pun there) seceding would interest me for a move there…

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 8:44 PM UTC

pixl97 wrote: post #96

overlordalex wrote: post #3

I live in Cape Town, and this article is missing some points about whats been going on: 1. "Day 0" has been moved forward - we're now expected to run out of water 21 April. 2. The daily limit of water per person is 87l but only ~50% of consumers meet this target 3. This is considered a 1/1000 year event (in contrast to 1/100 experienced elsewhere in the country recently). However due to increased population this is b…

>2. The city has lost R1.6b ($130m) in water fees due to reduced usage, so now we're facing a "drought tax". To me this is bullshit but thats a whole other post. Why? In already deployed networks, decreased usage means the cost per client, or the cost per unit used will go up. This is a problem with any network that charges for delivery based on usage and cannot easily cut off unused parts of the network.

Post by nevi-me » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 9:06 PM UTC

chesimov wrote: post #24

overlordalex wrote: post #3

I live in Cape Town, and this article is missing some points about whats been going on: 1. "Day 0" has been moved forward - we're now expected to run out of water 21 April. 2. The daily limit of water per person is 87l but only ~50% of consumers meet this target 3. This is considered a 1/1000 year event (in contrast to 1/100 experienced elsewhere in the country recently). However due to increased population this is b…

On point 4 - my understanding is that the poorest areas (which are at most risk of disease outbreaks) will not have their water cut. Rather, everyone else will have their water cut first while some water still remains in the dams, which is specifically allocated for those areas and will last long enough until the mid-year rain. I last read this a while ago though, so things may have changed.

Post by nevi-me » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

mikro2nd wrote: post #74

tonteldoos wrote: post #51

I'm currently in Brisbane, and arrived here while the big drought was still in progress (around 2008). Numerous restrictions, legislation for water saving measures, desal plants, etc were being implemented at the time, with pretty astounding results in terms of average water consumption. The drought broke in January 2011, and it's a little sad to see how much that was learnt, has been forgotten in the last 7 years. D…

Very unlikely that the Cape Town drought will break any time soon. The city is in a Winter rainfall region, so there's little chance of significant rains before May or June, and even then -- and assuming that rainfall returns to something resembling "normal" -- it will take several years for dams to fully restock. A single rainy season ain't gonna do it (unless there're some pretty catastrophic rains. ;)