South Africa's 'Day Zero'

We will step away from the Northern African context for this blog post. Instead, we will be looking at water narratives in the south. Cape Town, South Africa’s capital is projected to be the first major city in the world to run out of water. The cause of South Africa’s water crisis is unique as the water shortages are not due to the classic high demand and low supply paradox, but due to uneven distribution, politics, poor planning and inefficient crisis management. Although residents are not accountable for the crisis that is consuming South Africa, “the burden of making sure it doesn’t happen rests largely on our [the South African local’s] ability to cut down on water usage”.

Cape Town bracing for ‘day zero’ (the day where the city has no more running water) is a middle-class crisis that made news headlines in 2018. However, many other Townships, namely black townships have long suffered water shortages and have been living in ‘day zero’ for years. 

South Africa relies on its rainwater for its water supply, but it is unpredictable and decreasing due to a warming climate. Dams were supplying the city below a 13.5% capacity at one point, and residents were allowed to consume 13 gallons of water per person per day, which was below the UN daily recommendation for domestic water needs. 13 gallons was just enough for a “90-second shower, a half-gallon of drinking water, a sinkful to hand-wash dishes or laundry, one cooked meal, two hand washings, two teeth brushings and one toilet flush”. The concept of ‘day zero’ almost feels unreal and straight out of a dystopian novel. The government is set to turn off taps for most homes, and residents will have to line up at communal water points to collect their daily water allowance, which is not any different from how people in informal settlements live now. 

It is difficult to put blame on who is the most responsible for the water crisis in South Africa. The inability to cooperate between the different levels of government has ultimately resulted in this disaster, that could have been avoided. Post-Apartheid, resource management issues were inherently political, and the government distributed water unevenly, as they prioritised the needs of the sector’s that generated a significant proportion of the nation’s GDP over the needs of the poorest in Townships.

It is clear that the residents of South Africa are living in an age of a man-made water crisis created by politics.