The people of Cape Town are running out of water—and they’re not alone

Day Zero: that’s the ominous label officials in Cape Town have bestowed on the day that water will run out.
A three year drought in the region drained reservoirs faster than expected.
They were full at the start of 2014, but estimates from the end of January 2018 show that water levels are now at 26 percent of capacity.
Cape Town’s residents will receive a daily ration of 25 liters of water—the average American, by contrast, uses fifteen times as much per day.
But while conservation efforts may stave off the inevitable, there’s one thing city planners and water management can’t predict: when it will rain again.
But the South African city is just one of many localities across the globe to face extreme water shortages in recent years—and one of many more to come.
The predictions of what could happen in Cape Town have already come true in this city of almost two and a half million.
Blame watermelons for last year’s protests in drought-stricken Morocco.
In October 2017, the government shut off water supplies in the rural town of Zagora in response to shortages.
It’s a town where residents report that clean drinking water is hard to come by, even when the taps are running, and they quickly took to the streets in protest.

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