Mentioning the weather is anything but small talk in Cape Town nowadays. For many reasons it should be among the most important conversations you have with your neighbours on a daily basis.
According to How many days of water does Cape Town have left? — a purple gradient single-serving website — our taps could be running dry as early as the end of September.
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The site itself is not a novel idea, but does serve its visitors with the most critical of numbers.
While megalitres, millimetres and percentages are all vital for understanding the larger water usage picture in Cape Town, the number of days we have until those faucets become novelties is arguably the most important.
Cape Town has less than 60 days of water left, according to this site
At present, that number stands at 58 days, according to current daily consumption and the combined level of all the dams in the Western Cape water scheme.
While dam levels have increased by a slight amount, they remain at just 27.9% as of 30 July. Cape Town’s daily water consumption though, hasn’t budged, and is still around 140-million litres above the 500-million litres per day threshold set by the City (pdf).
MUST READ: Cape Town: calculate your daily water usage here
How much water do you consume daily? Considering that the City of Cape Town wants its citizens to use less than 87 litres per day, you may be wondering just that. Read more…
In addition to the doomsday countdown, How many days of water does Cape Town have left? also provides visitors with essential contact information, a few recommended reading pieces on the El Nino effect, South Africa’s climate history and current weather patterns across the world.
While the site seemingly hasn’t updated its data since 17 July, it’s a notable reminder that even us tech-folk can help raise awareness for the ongoing water crisis gripping our part of the world.
