Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 147 posts

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

#61

Post by wonderwonder »

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…

Does government corruption / incompetence come into play in making this situation worse than it should be?

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

#63

Post by chesimov »

spodek wrote: post #43

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.

The people you are speaking about, the Bushmen, were wiped out by the Nguni pastoralists and the European settlers. A few descendents remain. They are not in power here. As for Westerners... they haven't been in power for more than 20 years (if you call the Apartheid government western?). Infrastructural development has slowed down mostly due to graft. Secondly, we are talking about a tiny region of Southern Africa. The rest of it is mostly fine.

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

#64

Post by goldenkey »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #55
spodek wrote: post #43

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.

Yes, but hunting and gathering in the bush doesn't do a damn about increasing technology and getting us off this planet. All it takes is one planetary scale disaster, and we're done for.

Actually from what I've read, hunter gatherers had 8+ hours of free time per day. They weren't constantly running in fear of predators as usually thought. There was plenty of time for invention if inclined.

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

#66

Post by jakewins »

We've been looking at reducing water use this spring; someone else might find these products useful:

OAS(1) showers cap water at 5-10L per use, no matter how long you shower. Getting this installed also means we can swap our water heater to run on the solar array entirely, since you're not flushing all that energy down the drain while you shower.

Waterless urinals(2) use no water at all. They work by keeping a layer of oil in the trap instead. Pee sinks under the oil layer and out of the trap, oil stays in the trap since it floats on top. So, stays just as clean as a regular toilet, with no water hookup.

Disclosure: None, I've got nothing to do with these companies, other than buying their products for my cabin.

(1) https://orbital-systems.com/

(2) https://www.waterless.com/

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

#67

Post by croon »

pathseeker wrote: post #59
pjc50 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

The problem is that state's aren't really motivated to get things done in a cost efficient manner. If the government in SA is like the US, employees are not rewarded for doing anything beyond the bare minimum to prove that they are still alive. In a private business, the employees have to help the business towards its goal of making money, so all of the incentives are aligned to be successful (employees want promotio…

> The problem is that state's aren't really motivated to get things done in a cost efficient manner.

And businesses aren't really motivated to provide cheap water or more than bare-minimum health standards.

There are obvious pros and cons on both sides of that debate.

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

#68

Post by logingone »

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.

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

#69

Post by croon »

20after4 wrote: post #60
SolarNet wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried drinking sea water? It tastes salty. The short of it being: It makes you thirstier; drinking it is worse than drinking nothing. Desalination is expensive in many ways. If it was a viable way of acquiring water (which it is in some places, like literal deserts) then these places would have already done it. Hence rising sea levels provide no additional access drinkable water.

But it has what plants crave.

Not sure if you're being facetious, but saltwater kills most plants, with a few exceptions.
Post reply on HN