Without action on behalf of the citizens of Cape Town to drastically reduce water consumption, April 21 will mark what is now being called “Day Zero.” On Day Zero, Cape Town officials will shut off running water to houses, and will instead ration water from approximately 200 access points around the city.
Cape Town citizens are currently using an average of 87 litres of water per day, an unsustainable rate of consumption due to the fact that the city has experienced unprecedented droughts for the last two years, and water reserve levels are hovering at about a quarter of their capacity.
If Cape Town reaches Day Zero, rations will be further limited to 25 litres a day.
Which in total amounts to a 90-second shower, a large bottle of drinking water, and weekly laundry cleaning, if that.
This may sound like the plot of a dystopian science fiction film, but these situations are likely only going to become more common throughout the world.
For years, some Indigenous communities have gone without access to running and potable water, creating similar crises that have gone relatively unnoticed.
A prime example of this is the community of Shoal Lake, Ontario, whose residents haven’t been able to drink from the community’s water supply since 1998.
That’s 20 years without potable water.
“We have people in our community that are very vulnerable to sickness because we don’t have access to clean drinking water.” In contrast to communities like Shoal Lake that are forced to live on rationed water reserves, or collect their water from resources sometimes miles from their homes, Canadians used an average of 251 litres of water per day in 2011, according to an article in the Globe and Mail.
While Canada’s fresh water reserves can currently withstand this level of consumption, climate change will likely only exacerbate water shortages around the world, including in Canada.