South Africa’s second largest city is under severe warning.
Cape Town is at risk of losing its entire water supply, meaning its four million citizens will be without access to clean drinking water.
Read on as we look at how the city has found itself in this predicament.
Unfortunately, in Cape Town, it’s showing no signs of increasing.
However, with the Capetonians making very little effort to reduce their water usage, Day Zero has now been brought forward to 12th April.
Where has the water gone?
The population of Cape Town has been asked to use water sparingly, exceeding no more that 87 litres per day.
"Despite our urging for months, 60% of Capetonians are callously using more than 87 litres per day.
Once the water has been switched off, the only way Capetonians will be able to get access to clean drinking water will be from 200 water distribution points around the city.
People may have to queue for hours on end at each point to receive a daily ration of 25 litres of water.

The supply of water has been taken for granted across the world.
Water is the driving force of all nature, the great Leonardo da Vinci had observed.
Unfortunately, for our planet, supplies are now running dry – at an alarming rate.
The world’s population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an increase in supplies of fresh water.
The consequences are proving to be profound.
Across the globe, reports reveal huge areas in acute crisis.
More than a billion people, one in seven on the planet, now lack access to safe drinking water.
"Small wonder that the World Economic Forum has listed water scarcity as the largest global risk in terms of potential impact over the next decade.
Half of the world’s largest cities experience water scarcity.
Although a mere 0.014 per cent of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible (of the remaining water, 97 per cent is saline and a little less than 3 per cent is hard to access), technically, there is a sufficient amount of freshwater on a global scale, for mankind to get by.

Cape Town drought: City beyond ‘point of no return’ and will run out of water in April, warns mayor The executive mayor of Cape Town has warned citizens and prospective visitors that the city is “very likely” to run out of water in April.
Calls to limit individual consumption to 87 litres per day have, say the authorities, been ignored by three-fifths of the people living in greater Cape Town – which has 3.7 million people.
“Day Zero is the day that almost all of the taps in the city will be turned off and we will have to queue for water,” says the city council.
For tourists as well as locals, coping with the water shortage is becoming a daily struggle.
“A true nightmare scenario is developing before our very eyes.” Jamie Bowden, a long-stay UK visitor to the city, told The Independent: “The water crisis is the only topic of conversation.
Arriving passengers at Cape Town airport are met with a huge banner on the drive out of the airport imploring visitors to shower for just two minutes.
“The tourism infrastructure is working – hotels, bars and restaurants are doing a roaring trade as always.
“There will be water for tourists’ essential daily needs including access to drinking water and for personal hygiene.
Meanwhile a black market in drinking water is taking shape, according to Mr Bowden: ”I went to a warehouse that stocks large plastic water containers and the place is just being stripped every day.
They know the value of stored fresh drinking water will soar in coming weeks and getting thousands of litres of it now for free is likely to be extremely profitable.” From 1 February, the limit per person falls from 87 to 50 litres a day.

Authorities say that despite huge efforts that have been taken by the government to improve water supply, still there is a shortage of more than 234 million litres of water to meet the daily demand in Unguja and Pemba.
In the Urban-West region, the water availability is 63 percent of the daily demand, in Unguja North region is 48 percent and 50 percent in Unguja South region while in Pemba, the availability of water has reached 83 percent in north region and 87 percent in South Region.
A statement from the government says "All these ongoing operations undertaken by STECOL Company from China will be completed by April 2019, and upon its completion it will increase the availability of water in the urban west region from 67 million litres to 81 litres per day, an increase of 20.9 percent."
The minister responsible for water Ms Salama Aboud Talib said in addition, a big water project that was undertaken by the ‘China First Highway Engineering Company (CFHEC)’ geared to improve water supply in North and South Regions of Unguja was successfully completed last month (December, 2017).
The news about government’s efforts to overcome water crisis in its urban and rural areas comes at the time when complains against water shortage continues including call for water desalination.
It is thought that by the year 2025, the situation may become worse when two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages, and that the problems needs to be highlighted and re-emphasized over and over again so that everyone takes role.
Water scarcity or lack of safe drinking water is one of the World’s leading problems affecting more than 1.1 billion people globally, meaning that one in every six people lacks access to safe drinking water.
World Water Day, on 22 March every year, is about focusing attention on the importance of water.
Environmentalists and activists also link water shortage to excessive and unsustainable human consumption, and overuse of water across the board and in all forms of industrial processes such as Non-sustainable domestic practices such as leaving taps running when water is not needed.
Effects and Severe Consequences of Water Shortages are many including spending less time on other development activities for women, and Gender Based Violence (GBV) including being abused by rapists while children and women walk long distance or wake-up very early in search for water.

Some Spotsylvania leaders expressed skepticism Tuesday over the county’s longstanding practice of adding a small amount of fluoride to drinking water while others called it a nonissue.
But the Board of Supervisors stopped short of making any decisions on the matter after hearing a presentation about the benefits of fluoridated water, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says reduces cavities by 25 percent.
Supervisors Chairman Greg Benton proposed surveying residents—perhaps on the water bills—about their stance on fluoridated water.
He noted that most of the folks who spoke at the meeting live outside Spotsylvania.
“This is something we’re not giving people a choice on,” Benton said of fluoridated water.
Supervisors Chris Yakabouski and Gary Skinner spoke in support of fluoridated water, with Yakabouski calling the whole discussion an embarrassment to the county.
Plating, a retired chemist, has cited an International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, or IAOMT, position paper that claims fluoride is linked to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and “many other adverse health outcomes.” Dr. Johnny Johnson, president of the American Fluoridation Society, flew to Virginia from Florida to take part in Tuesday’s presentation to supervisors, telling them that an overwhelming number of scientific studies show the practice is safe.
Spotsylvania adds 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter to municipal water, though the concentration can be slightly higher because of naturally occurring fluoride.
Fredericksburg, which buys its water from Spotsylvania’s Motts Run Water Treatment Plant, opposes stopping fluoridation.
During the Spotsylvania meeting’s public-comments period, 21 speakers—including dentists, representatives of health care organizations, and a school nurse—urged supervisors to keep fluoridating the drinking water, while two advised against it.

Press Release: Safe H2O
The results of a national water perception survey, organised by Safe H2O, a New Zealand water purification business, have revealed that a staggering number of Kiwis wouldn’t know what to do if they were cut off from a clean water supply.
Forty-six percent have no emergency plans in place at all.
Just over 50% of respondents suspect that they or someone they know has been sick as a result of their drinking water.
“Access to clean, safe water should never be underappreciated.
You only have to look at Havelock North to understand the consequences of drinking water from a contaminated source,” explains Chad.
Whether you live rurally or in a town or city, it only takes a natural disaster or a nasty bug like norovirus to disrupt the entire water supply.” Chad and his team would like to see more Kiwis putting stringent plans in place to protect themselves from emergency situations.
Safe H2O is also encouraging councils to put mobile emergency water filtration systems in place.
“The first response during water supply emergencies needs to be quicker and households need to be better equipped and more informed,” says Chad.
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As part of its goal to end long-term boil water advisories for First Nations reserves, the federal government has added nearly 250 more drinking water systems to its list of those eligible for public monies, meaning it will have to address many more advisories than it originally intended.
In the past federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to end all such advisories by March 2021 to finally deliver clean drinking water for all First Nations peoples.
While progress has been made in the first two years of government, the list of long-term advisories still stands at 67 — a number that increased to 91 on Tuesday as a result of the new systems receiving federal supports.
Thus, a total of 1,047 drinking water systems will now eligible for supports from Indigenous Services Canada, the five-month old department created by the government to better provide services to First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples.
Despite the additions, Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott said the Liberals will still meet their intended goal of ending these water advisories in the same timeframe.
Not only will they stick to the March 2021 completion date, but Philpott said they are committed to "accelerating" the pace of construction and renovation for affected water systems.
Philpott said two-thirds of the $2 billion allocated to address water systems in Budget 2016 remains unspent.
42 of the 91 advisories still have no scheduled completion date.
"The first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem and that there needs to be a solution and I applaud the federal government wholeheartedly for putting the communities on the list … hopefully the money will come to correct these issues," he said in an interview with CBC News.
Of those 575 homes, 47 per cent can only access contaminated groundwater and thus have to rely on bottled water for daily activities.

Today, the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Indigenous Services, announced that the Department of Indigenous Services Canada will add close to 250 drinking water systems to the total number covered by the federal government’s commitment to ensure clean drinking water on public systems on reserve.
As a result, the Government will provide financial support to end 24 additional long-term drinking water advisories by March 2021.
The Government is ready to provide support if any additional drinking water advisories become long term or are at risk of becoming long term, on the more than 1,000 public drinking water systems on reserve covered by its commitment.
Budget 2016 provided investments of $1.8 billion over five years to significantly improve on-reserve water and wastewater infrastructure, ensure proper facility operation, maintenance, and support training of water system operations.
Five-year targeted investments provide communities with the necessary funding security in order to plan, design, and implement required upgrades.
Budget 2016 also includes $141.7 million over five years in new funding to improve drinking water monitoring and testing on reserve.
Quotes "First Nation communities working in partnership with the federal government have started or completed almost 350 projects to improve water and wastewater infrastructure on reserve.
As we move into 2018, many of these projects will be completed, and we expect at least 20 additional long-term drinking water advisories will be lifted by the end of the year.
We have a lot of hard work ahead, but our Government remains steadfast in our commitment – to lift all long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserve by March 2021."
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ISLAMABAD: The Embassy of Switzerland in Pakistan signed two memorandums of understanding with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in Peshawar on Tuesday, to improve water governance in the province with a total funding of 5.1 million Swiss francs (USD 5.3 million).
Under the project titled ‘Water Governance in KP,’ the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will provide an off-budget grant of 3.5 million Swiss francs (USD 3.56 million) to the KP government to support the improved management of water resources and ensure an equitable access to safe drinking water in Peshawar and Mardan in the years 2018 and 2019.
In addition, a tripartite MoU was also signed between the KP government, SDC and Swiss NGO Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation to support the exit phase of Water for Livelihoods (W4L) project in the province.
The SDC will provide 1.6 million Swiss francs (approximately USD 1.7 million) to institutionalise the results of this project within the government and its line departments.
SDC has been supporting the W4L project since 2011 to ensure an equitable access to water in ecologically fragile and semi-arid districts of KP.
The project adopted a community-based approach to solve water issues in each district, and formed the Water User Associations and Water User Groups comprising of community members.
The exit phase will also focus on policy engagement with the government and relevant stakeholders for an integrated water resource management strategy for the province.
The second MoU was signed by KP’s Additional Chief Secretary (P&D) Shahzad Bangash, Country Director of Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Dr Arjumand Nizami and Dr Burri.
Among those who attended the ceremony, were Nathalie Semoroz, Deputy Head of South Asia Division of SDC and Rudolph Von Planta, Deputy Head of Division Europe, Asia and Americas for Humanitarian Aid.
Switzerland has been delivering development and humanitarian assistance to Pakistan through the SDC since 1966.

This must be the year California changes that.
Opinion Last year, leading agricultural associations, public health organizations and environmental justice groups reached consensus on legislation that provides a sustainable, long-term solution.
Given the breadth of support and the urgency of the problem, Senate Bill 623 should top the agenda for the Legislature and Gov.
Jerry Brown.
It appears it may well be: The governor showed extraordinary leadership in his budget proposal, allocating $5 million in startup funds.
Many have unsafe levels of arsenic, which can cause cancer and other serious illnesses.
The families who rely on these unsafe water systems are forced to buy bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing, even as they pay monthly water bills.
But these funds cannot be used to help communities afford the ongoing cost of providing safe drinking water.
In addition, with the support of such influential farming groups as the Agricultural Council of California, it establishes a small fee on agricultural users to address nitrate contamination as they continue to reduce the impacts of nitrates on groundwater.
In 2017, that solution came together.