
Cape Town Is 90 Days Away from Running Out of Water - pakugajjar
http://time.com/5103259/cape-town-water-crisis
======
rrmm
On the plus side, this is a really nice and concise story: Hit's all the major
questions (that can be asked in a short space) with no anecdotes about people
showering.

Anyone know of any good longer form articles exploring the topic?

------
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16175757](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16175757)

~~~
decasia
The previous HN discussion was decent -- especially in ecological and
practical terms -- but probably left room for more analysis of the cultural
and political factors involved in the crisis (I say this as a cultural
anthropologist!).

------
Mankhool
An earlier article in The Guardian, that I cannot find atm said that only 54%
of residents were meeting their water rationing quota (!)

------
decasia
I'm working in the Cape Town area right now and here are a few notes from on
the ground:

\- If the city water system is largely shut down, like the article says, there
will have to be a system of collecting water rations from distribution points.

\- It's provoked a lot of class antagonism -- one response has been, "Finally,
the well off population will have to carry water home in buckets, the same way
as the poor 'township' population has long been doing." Kind of like "welcome
to how the other half lives."

\- It seems possible that in reality, people with more money will be able to
buy their way out of the crisis somewhat (by paying private companies for
water delivery, or in some cases by drilling wells on their properties, which
isn't otherwise common in the metropolitan area).

\- My household has been using about 33 liters per day per person, using
pretty standard and obvious water conservation measures (less use of washing
machine, minimizing showers, reclaiming shower water with buckets). This is
slightly inconvenient but basically allows life to continue normally.

\- The whole crisis is massively connected to local and regional politics --
I've only been down here since September so I don't totally understand, but it
has to do with the ANC running the country and the oppositional party (the
Democratic Alliance) running Cape Town. Some people say that there has been
very little assistance from the national government because the ANC sees no
reason to assist their political opposition.

\- Lots of rumors about private enterprise maneuvering to profit massively
from the water crisis -- I even heard a pretty credible story about organized
crime using threats of force to extract water from one of the local springs
(which are a relatively small but non-negligible source of additional water).

\- There's a bit of a generalized sense of panic, like "maybe it will end in
total social breakdown, anarchy in the pejorative sense." I can't tell how
much of this is reasonable but my guess is that it would have everything to do
with how well an alternative water distribution system could be organized.

\- One other weird political thing is that, I would think, logically, if you
were the city government and you had calculated the maximum available water
ration, you would want to start by sanctioning people who exceeded it, instead
of just letting the water get used up and then having a complete system
failure. There have been threats of increased charges for people who exceed
quota, which is a small step in that direction, but it baffles me that they
haven't just shut off the taps first for people who are over quota. Apparently
there is massive local politics around this (even having a more punitive
charge for quota exceeding was recently shot down).

I can provide a lot of links to local news sources if anyone is interested. I
haven't seen really great coverage in the international media.

------
melling
I’ll be in Capetown in two weeks. i’m only staying for a few days then driving
the Garden Route.

South Africa should be on everyone’s list:

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtyKWylFkt/?taken-
by=mmellinger...](https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtyKWylFkt/?taken-
by=mmellinger66)

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtxGoVlh6E/?taken-
by=mmellinger...](https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtxGoVlh6E/?taken-
by=mmellinger66)

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtx6EylczC/?taken-
by=mmellinger...](https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtx6EylczC/?taken-
by=mmellinger66)

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtxqkfFrW7/?taken-
by=mmellinger...](https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtxqkfFrW7/?taken-
by=mmellinger66)

~~~
igitur
Looks like pictures taken in Kruger National Park or elsewhere in the
northeast of South Africa. Don't expect giraffes in Cape Town or the garden
route.

~~~
melling
I took them in Sabi Sands.

~~~
igitur
Ah OK. But enjoy the Garden Route. Currently bucketing down with rain there.
Hope you include Wilderness in the itinerary.

[https://www.travelground.com/blog/big-tree-forest-walk-
wilde...](https://www.travelground.com/blog/big-tree-forest-walk-wilderness)

