What happens when water runs out?

Cape Town- count down to day zero

Cape Town is located in the country South Africa, within the continent of Africa. It is surrounded by Angola to its North West, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to its North East, Zambia to its West and Botswana to its North. Cape Town is also bordered by the South Atlantic Ocean, to its West and the Indian Ocean to its East. The coordinates of Cape Town are: -33.918861 latitude and it's longitude is 18.423300. Many tourists are attracted to Cape Town because of its location, along South Africa's southwest coast, which gives it beautiful beaches and weather. Cape Town also has many natural geographical features such as mountainous areas, islands, rivers, and its hilly slopes. Despite its appearance, Cape Town faces much crime, due to high poverty rates within the urban areas. This poverty is caused partially due to overpopulation, which is also a problem given its lack of resources.

The four million residents of Cape Town have relied on dams to meet their water needs. However, due to the worst drought in five years hitting Cape Town, and the new harsh, dry climate, the water levels in its dams have fallen rapidly. Water restrictions have been imposed upon the city to minimise their water usage and this has been enforced by the police.
 Cape Town's climate had been getting warmer, with it rising from an annual average temperature of 35 degrees in 1980, to 42 degrees celsius in 2015. The drought is thought to have been caused by climate change. Climate change is when harmful greenhouse gasses, like carbon dioxide, are released into the atmosphere as a result of human activities (primarily the burning of fossil fuels).  These gasses then create a layer around the earth, preventing heat from escaping the earths atmosphere and therefore resulting in a rise of temperature across the globe. This is also referred to as global warming and it threatens many species with extinction, melts permafrost and is causing severe droughts across many countries, including Cape Town.


This is not the only cause for water scarcity. Cape Town has relied on dams to provide the water to its residents for centuries. Using dams to collect excess water during times of rainfall is an old fashioned way of harnessing water. In many plants of the world, infrastructure has been put in place to access water more conveniently. Due to the long lasting drought, Cape Towns water supply has almost all been used up and limits to peoples water usage have been put in place. These include not being allowed to water plants, or clean your car and clean water must only be used for drinking.

Amidst this crisis, people have turned to their god for help and are preying and hoping for all to be okay again, as they count down to day zero, when all water will have been used up. Many of Cape Towns citizens are protesting as the more wealthy side of town do not have such strict rules and limits to their water consumption. To add to this, there have also been street rallies against the idea of companies making a profit out of their suffering, by putting a price on water. This is seen as wrong because water is essential and all people should have access to it, no mater how wealthy they are. This inequality and injustice shows signs of an unstable and corrupt leadership. South Africa in particular is known to have a massive gap between its billionaires and wealthy citizens and poorer communities.