INDYGO Cape Town drought-affected residents now on 50 litres of water per day as crisis worsens South Africans living outside the drought-stricken Western Cape province are being urged by charities to donate water to be taken to Cape Town, as more stringent conservation measures take effect. “Day Zero”, when reservoirs supplying Cape Town are deemed to be critically low and the taps are turned off, is now calculated to be 16 April; previously the date was set at 21 April, and then 12 April. If and when it happens, citizens will have to collect water from 200 standpipes around the city. Yesterday the daily limit per person using the municipal supply was reduced by 43 per cent to 50 litres. Western Cape was declared a disaster area in May 2017 after successive years of sharply lower rainfall. Reservoirs, known…

Columnist David McKay Wilson talks about changes in the plan for Westchester County Airport since George Latimer took over as county executive. FiOS Westchester has discovered groundwater contamination at the county airport, with officials suspecting it was caused by chemicals used in firefighting foam decades ago. Preliminary results from one monitoring well, located near a former Air National Guard septic field, found contaminants in concentrations that were 14 times the limit set by the US Environmental Protection Agency health advisory. The airport borders the Kensico Reservoir, which provides drinking water to New York City and some Westchester residents. Most residents in nearby Greenwich, Connecticut, get their water from reservoirs in town managed by Aquarion Water Co., although some rely on private wells. Tests of the Kensico Reservoir have found no evidence that the contamination has seeped into the water supply, a state official said. “We had a few high hits on some wells,” said Vincent Kopicki, the county’s commissioner of public works and transportation, at the Jan. 24 meeting of the county Airport Advisory Board. The contamination was detected at a well just north of the airport in July 2017, which led to testing of wells across the airport property. Samples taken in November found contamination at the airport, with the public notified of the findings at the Jan. 24 meeting of the Westchester Airport Advisory Board. Investigators want to determine which direction the contamination is flowing — to the west toward the Kensico Reservoir, or to the southeast, toward public wells in Greenwich. The EPA sets safe drinking water standards of 70 parts per trillion….