Posted on 02/01/2018 6:53:13 AM PST by libstripper
(CNN)Cape Town -- a city once at the forefront of Africa's green movement -- implemented new emergency water restrictions Thursday as the sprawling metropolis prepares for the day its taps run dry. (Emphasis added.)
Residents are now being asked to curb the amount of municipal water they use each day to just 50 liters (a little over 13 gallons). Only a month ago, level six restrictions had placed residents on a daily allowance of 87 liters (about 23 gallons), illustrating the severity of the looming crisis.
Officials estimate that if water levels continue to fall as expected, South Africa's second most populous city will run out of water by April 16, which is known as "Day Zero."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Coming here to California soon. Just you watch.
Again, better to be silent and thought a fool, then to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.
You sir, have removed all doubt.
Actually visit SA, and you will find out how utterly wrong you are.
ANC RULE IS GREAT!!
No he’s not... Have you been to SA? Have you been to Capetown?
I actually have, I’ve been to several countries and nations in subsaharan Africa, and the nonsense being spewed as fact by utterly ignorant individuals here just expose their posters absolute ignorance and nothing more.
The southern part of Africa has been in a multi year drought, driven by El Nino, and while much of the country has begun to recover, as rains have begun falling, Capetown is at the very southern edge and has not begun to recover yet.
The lack of water is not an “infrastructure” problem, or a bad governance problem, or “not enough white people” problem... Its the result of a 3 year DROUGHT! Suggesting that the water isn’t flowing because of poor infrastructure or poor governance is beyond idiotic.
The complete ignorance being spewed here is shameful.
I will happily point you to true shitholes of the African continent, and can point you to countless places where poor governance, and tribalism have repressed people, and where absolute abject poverty exists... but Capetown sure as hell isn’t one of them, nor is SA in general. People should really get informed before they pop off and display the complete ignorance.
Yes. We have heard of desalinisation but it’s expensive and we have a relatively small tax base.
Our leakage rate in Cape Town is relatively low compared with other major international cities.
We didn’t have an unemployment rate of about 28% in those years - over 50% among the youth. Since the end of apartheid there has been a large influx of poor blacks from other parts of the country, especially the Eastern Cape, looking for work. Many of them now come here because the schooling is far superior to that in some other provinces as well as hospitals, etc. We are having to provide services to a large number of people who are unemployed/unemployable.
Usage was reduced long ago. In spite of the fact that we can get very heavy rains in winter, there are also many bad years.
We periodically have to cut down on non-essential use, eg garden watering, car washing, etc.
Utility bills will be going up from this month, however this should have happened sooner and I don’t believe that they are sufficiently punitive for those who are acting as though we are not in a prolonged drought.
Regarding collection points - no-one is obliged to use collection points at the moment. What is happening is that there are a couple of springs in the grounds of the SA Breweries which they have always allowed the locals to collect water from. The demand has suddenly increased because of people who want free water to exceed their daily usage recommendations.
Icebergs? Half the distance to tow to Capetown, as to the UAE.
https://www.marketslant.com/article/uae-tow-icebergs-water
Before saying nothing green caused the crisis, I’d like to know what the “green” measures were. In many places, like CA, they include not building needed reservoirs, shutting down and prohibiting: hydro-power projects, coal generation projects, and nuclear power plants; and encouraging boondoggles like wind and solar power where conventional and nuclear power would be cheaper and more efficient. If that kind of “greening” is what has happened at Cape Town, then there’s a good chance it left them sitting ducks for the present crisis because they’d lack adequate water storage to cover the drought and adequate electrical power to run desalination plants. I’d like to see an article that covers those points.
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