One of the world’s favorite tourism designations, South Africa’s iconic city of Cape Town, has less than a 100 days of water supply left if a drought is not relieved soon.
The city’s mayor, Patricia de Lille, has again urged Capetonians to conserve water in order to avoid “day zero,” now forecast for April 21.
It is important that all residents must continue to save water, despite the City’s work to secure new water sources.
— Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) January 11, 2018 The debilitating water shortage has forced city government to implement an online water consumption map, which will allow residents to check up on their neighbors’ water habits based on households’ municipal bills.
The website‚ formally launched this week‚ has already prompted a wave of social media comment, most of it negative.
But the city council defended the initiative‚ which it says is aimed at increasing residents’ awareness of water consumption.
“The potential water-saving benefit for all of Cape Town of making water consumption indicators publicly available outweighs any privacy issues at this stage of the crisis‚” mayoral spokeswoman Zara Nicholson said.
It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape.
Apart from asking neighbors to keep an eye on each other’s consumption, the city has also been preparing how to deal with what looks like an inevitable shut down of the taps.
The distribution points would operate 24 hours a day and a public health communications campaign will be mounted in advance to ensure that all sanitation systems continue to function and limit the risk of disease.