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

bbc.com

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

#41

Post by pbhjpbhj »

sgt wrote: post #7

It's definitely a big problem, yet I see a lot of creative solutions which gives us a bit of hope for the future. People are also working together to keep water consumption at its lowest. A lot of people are gathering rain water with big water tanks next to their houses. I've personally built a setup connected to the gutters of my roof, and it's amazing how much water you can gather like this. It's also quite easy to…

A pool must use a lot of water - perhaps heavy taxation on [water for] pools would help in the future?

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

#42

Post by chesimov »

charlesdm wrote: post #22
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…

Well, that's interesting. Are there companies that own water capacity in countries? Might be a good long term investment.

There is at least one self-sufficient desalination ship for hire that could apparently just about cover the entire city's needs on its own. It is also apparently very exensive so we are hoping to avoid that. I'd expect that's the kind of company that would be useful in these sorts of disasters.

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

#43

Post by spodek »

Just finished reading Affluence Without Abundance https://www.amazon.com/Affluence-Without-Abundance-Disappear... about bushmen who live in southern Africa.

It turns out people have lived in southern Africa for 200,000 years, hunting and gathering.

Westerners show up, run out of water in a couple hundred years, and call them "developing."

The book is an eye-opener.

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

#44

Post by pjc50 »

charlesdm wrote: post #37
badosu wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how to interpret this statement.. One part of me is disgusted at someone profiting from bad planning and misery of others, the other thinks that this is something that really needs investing.

I meant this in a positive, not negative way. A for-profit company, if done properly, will be able to introduce the required infrastructure where necessary. It should (theoretically at least) also be run in a better way -- if the infrastructure isn't functioning properly, no profits are being made.

"if done properly", state infrastructure can do this just as well. I'd have a look at the Carillion bankruptcy before claiming that the private sector is a solution.

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

#46

Post by whatusername »

21 wrote: post #25
baxtr wrote: post #16

I always wondered why you can buy a lot of H2O filled fruits like grapes from South Africa in Europa. They must have some enourmous amounts of water if they can export it. Maybe the price of water isn’t high enough yet or can’t be paid?

South Africa is not a desert - http://www.grainsa.co.za/images/Articles/2012-08/reenval_fig...

And it’s bigger in area than any two European countries (excluding Russia) combined. Just because there’s a drought in one part of Spain __ there might be plenty of water somewhere in France.

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

#47

Post by baxtr »

whatusername wrote: post #46
21 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South Africa is not a desert - http://www.grainsa.co.za/images/Articles/2012-08/reenval_fig...

And it’s bigger in area than any two European countries (excluding Russia) combined. Just because there’s a drought in one part of Spain __ there might be plenty of water somewhere in France.

My point is: if there’s a case to fly water (in form of grapes) to Europe, why would they not move water from one place in SA to another?

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

#48

Post by ProblemFactory »

mallin wrote: post #38

For anyone wanting to read more about this, here are some articles and data from the Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town. This article explains the severity of the drought, and calculates that the return interval for a two-year drought of this severity is 1150 years (!), which mostly absolves the City of blame for not anticipating it: http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2017/08/28/how-severe-is-this-dr…

> calculates that the return interval for a two-year drought of this severity is 1150 years (!)

This is however calculated based on historical weather data from 1920s onwards. With climate change ongoing and increasing, we can't rely on historical weather patterns staying accurate for future predictions. Old every 100 or 1000-year droughts can become every 10-year droughts.

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

#50

Post by throwwwwaway9 »

baxtr wrote: post #47
whatusername wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it’s bigger in area than any two European countries (excluding Russia) combined. Just because there’s a drought in one part of Spain __ there might be plenty of water somewhere in France.

My point is: if there’s a case to fly water (in form of grapes) to Europe, why would they not move water from one place in SA to another?

Cost?
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