Cape Town, South Africa’s coastal city of 4 million people, will be the world’s first modern city to run out of water.
(”When the taps run dry,” Time magazine, 2/19).
After three years of unprecedented drought, April 22 will become Day Zero.
And climate models show the city faces continued warming and a drier future.
Cape Town is not alone.
San Paulo was down to less than 20 days supply in 2015.
The Water Resources Institute, a Washington-based research organization, reports that more than a billion people currently live in water-scarce regions and as many a 3.5 billion (nearly half the world’s population) could experience water scarcity by 2025.
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As residents of a region with abundant water resources, we are reminded both how fortunate we are and how necessary it will be to protect those gifts going forward.