Cape Town, home to Table Mountain, African penguins, sunshine and sea, is a world-renowned tourist destination. But it could also become famous for being the first major city in the world to run out of water.
Most recent projections suggest that its water could run out as early as March. The crisis has been caused by three years of very low rainfall, coupled with increasing consumption by a growing population.
The local government is racing to address the situation, with desalination plants to make sea water drinkable, groundwater collection projects, and water recycling programmes.
Any suggestions will be helpful.
The looming water crisis in Cape Town was predicted over 2 decades ago. No mitigation measures were put in place to curb this shortage - it was business as usual. Today's crisis is more a governance issue.
Dear Raju Thapa
Between the census of 1996 and 2011, the City of Cape Town grew by 45%,
[1980-1996] +2.95 %/year , [1996-2001] +2.45 %/year , [2001-2011] +2.6 %/year
- Cape Town (Western Cape) population: 3,956,880 (year 1996)
- Cape Town (Western Cape) population: 6,200,100 (year 2015)
1-When the population become double, the rainfall must be double too if we expect to consume the same water per capita.
2-Management of a dry cycle for 1 million population is very easier than the same dry cycle with the same water resource for 10 million people.
3- There are many other problems such as water pollution, water salinity, etc. that make some water resources unavailable.
First, it is necessary to eliminate the impacts of population, water pollution, destroy of the aquifers, decrease of infiltration rate by urbanization, etc. on water resource, then it will be possible to find out the main problem.
Regards
Pirouz
There are a great deal of cities in Iran facing with Water Drought and Cape Town is not the first!
Thank you Mojtaba Khanian for your comments. You have rightly pointed out the point.
A drought in the Western Cape province of South Africa began in 2015 and is resulting in a severe water shortage in the region, most notably affecting the city of Cape Town. Despite water-saving measures, dam levels are predicted to decline to critically low levels, and the city has made plans for "Day Zero", when municipal water supply will largely be shut off. If this happens, Cape Town will be the first major city to run out of water
I think there is no relation between very low rainfall and "Global Warming".
I believe there is a relationship between global warming and climatic changes
Climatic changes and associated impacts in the Mediterranean resulting from a 2 C global warming
C Giannakopoulos, P Le Sager, M Bindi… - Global and Planetary …, 2009 - Elsevier
Article Climatic changes and associated impacts in the Mediterranean...
The Earth's average temperature has risen by 0.6°C and it may rise to over 2.0°C by the year 2070 so climate zone patterns could completely alter resulting unprecedented weather phenomenon.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fifth Assessment Report concluded that climate change is real and human activities are the main cause. The UN pointed that 'Climate change' is one of the major challenges of our time and adds considerable stress to our societies and to the environment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Without drastic action today, adapting to these impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly .
Many areas all over the world are going to face the drought like conditions in the future same as Cape Town.
Based on NOAA 2016:
- On average, total annual precipitation has increased over land areas in the worldwide. Since 1901, global precipitation has increased at an average rate of 0.08 inches per decade.
- Global average surface temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.15°F per decade since 1901. 2015 was the warmest year on record and 2006–2015 was the warmest decade on record since thermometer-based observations began.
The water consumption (agricultural, domestic, industrial) in the same period from 1900 to 2015 have been increased more than 8 times.
It means that the total precipitation increased but the water shortage might be because of the temperature increase (in result the evaporation increased) and also because of the population and economical growth (the water consumption increased). The water bodies that have been unavailable because of the pollution must be considered as well.
Is there a region with fixed population and urbanization in Iran or South Africa that confronted with water shortage?
Regards
Pirouz
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-temperature#ref2
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