Unless things change quickly – and drastically – it’s the day when taps in the South African city will be turned off, and Cape Town will be officially out of water.
Terrifying stats on the City of Cape Town website chart the city’s dwindling water supplies week-by-week, with Day Zero looming as reservoirs trickle down below 28 per cent capacity.
The droughts are partly down to an explosion in Cape Town’s population, with a 79 per cent increase in people since 1995 met by a mere 15 per cent increase in water storage capacity.
AFP or licensors Water Wars Without water to cool people off, temperatures can flare up during prolonged dry periods.
"Dry vegetation combined with high temperatures and low humidity often increases the frequency and intensity of fires, while conflicts over water can intensify during droughts."
Getty – Contributor You don’t have to look far to see an example of how wars can be waged over access to water.
Piotr Wolski, a researcher at the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, warns that the situation in South Africa could become a more common sight as the earth’s climate changes.
Since you can’t invest in water the way you would invest in other commodities, he’s focused on water-intensive crops instead.
And with Day Zero looming, the City of Cape Town still hasn’t finalised plans for 200 water collection points around the city, where citizens will be able to collect their daily twenty-five-litre water allowance.
And elsewhere, in Britain and further afield, people will be watching what happens in Cape Town and asking whether this could one day become the "new normal" for them too.