Day zero approaching Cape Town.

I'm shocked
I have never visited but my parents lived there before I was born.
They loved south Africa.
My father still talked about Cape Town right up till he died in 2015.
What can be done?
Other pray for rain.
Heads have been buried firmly in the sand

We were there last year and saw then that the reservoirs were dustbowls. There is plenty of water in the North but there doesn't seem to be any plans for piping it south. I asked my SA Silk why no preparations appear to have been made. His response 'TIA' - this is Africa!!

Silk =son in law!!

jane it still doesn’t detract from the fact that global warming is getting real.

What on earth is doing to the wildlife?

I never said it was trying to detract from its being a symptom of global warming! I'm saying I saw it. It's not fake news! Commenting on the inertia about dealing with the drought in Cape Town.

I’m not criticising - it was simply a continuation of the chat about global,warming. My point is that it doesn’t matter how the practicalities are being approach, and one wonders exactly what we would do in the same position, but that global warming is a fact and imo the worse challenge the world is facing.

It's really frightening...I lived in S.A for 5yrs,had 3rd son born there,still got friends there, the people,animals,plants everything is suffering....WE are not looking after this beautiful planet...

They do not have so far to go to capture some ice (eg an iceberg) to bring to shore and melt. If only a system had been set up before the crisis became imminent.

Perhaps in the long run countries will just have to co operate to deal with global warming. With 70%+ of the surface of the earth under water it can't be beyond man's ingenuity to turn it into usable water for us all. If only men would just stop fighting over relatively tiny differences. Sigh.

Many years ago it was predicted that future wars would be about water - especially in areas like Russia/Iran/Iraq who share rivers and inland seas.

I am surprised that they had not built desalination plants

DH's brother and family live in Capetown and are very worried - to put it mildly.

They are concerned about the prospect of civil unrest as the situation worsens.

Their view is that central government has not given funding to enable the building of desalination plants because the state is run by the opposition party.

And, of course, political corruption is rife.

I have it on reliable authority that it is currently raining in one bit of Xape Town - not enough but some relief!

Cape Town!

Middle-class people have been asked to have short showers of no more than 2 minutes. People in the Townships would love to have a shower of any length.
It has also been suggested that they stop watering the grapes in the wine producing area!
The politics of this is complex.

I got chatting to a single lady at the theatre who was from Cape Town. She was, obviously, extremely worried about the situation and the fact that the government doesn't seem to have a strategy to cope with it.

ewn.co.za/2018/02/02/desalination-plants-on-track-to-deliver-water-says-city-of-ct?utm_source=EwnNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=body&utm_content=7
I am from Cape Town originally and son is still there. They can only flush loo twice per day using washing up and laundry dirty water

Jalima wrote:
"I am surprised that they had not built desalination plants"
That's what I was going to say.
Other countries have had this problem for some time eg Israel who has been using de-salinated water for years. And Gaza . Could cause another war (God forbid.) Probably many other Middle east countries.

Jane10
How true your TIA comment. Having a friend who was, for several years, on a works contract in that country I recall him saying those very words. The opportunities are there. Taking advantage of them is another matter.

We've had ice-ages multiple times since the world began and warming in between those times. We cannot regulate facts and they are facts. Whereas some regions of the Arctics have been seen (as recently as last year) to be amassing MORE ice than usual, there are areas in which the reverse is true. That us something we can't alter...not unless we kill off tens of millions of people and methane emitting animals, together with ALL vehicles and power stations, stop imports and exports and plant tens of millions of trees.
However much you try, there is no altering nature.
If it rains it rains...etc and no dance will make a whit of difference.
Consider this. If YOU cut down on your travel, were mean with your use of electricity and were frugal with water yet 75% of your road didn't do any of that, would you be inclined to swim against the tide, cut back whilst their use doubled or tripled?
There is no magic cure, not even if we did what I first suggested.
If Africa won't attend to the perils in their own country (and goodness knows, they get enough aid) then leave them to it. They're an idle nation with despots running it. I've no time or sympathy for them.

GG, you say you have no sympathy with South Africans because they have “failed to attend to the perils in their own country”. But surely your advice to them would be to do nothing at all and to quietly die, because “..there is no altering nature”?

Fitzy54
I wouldn't waste my breath by giving advice.
There IS no altering nature but people can somewhat mitigate/ameliorate the negative effects by taking action, something they have signally failed to do.
The people responsible for running the country are, presumably, adults.
If they cannot or will not stir themselves to find ways of transporting water from regions were there IS plenty, to regions which have none, then why should I care?
It's up to the population of that country to find the remedy after all, they voted their government into office.
I've no time for people or countries who dig their own holes then whinge that they can't get out.

On Radio 4 someone talking about the drought said that for many people in South Africa lack of water is an everyday fact of life with little hope of the situation changing (quite apart from the drought). When the better off experience lack of water it makes the headlines.

The human race hasn't learnt a thing over the centuries. They continue to overpopulate and overdevelop the planet and think things will just continue nicely. It is not Mother Nature's fault; she has her limits and it's time people also learnt theirs. Who will be the leader brave enough to make a stand?

The first thing to do is to stop rewarding people financially for having children and stop providing accommodation to both parties when relationships don't work out or for those who didn't bother to have a relationship in the first place but still expect separate accommodation from their parents.

Harsh realities have to be faced. If we just continue to feed the starving millions in Africa etc. all we are doing is making them strong enough to breed more so fewer can be helped. It's not just people who live on this planet. More people equals more housing, more food but less land to grow it on, less space for animals and less trees to help us breathe.