Day zero approaching Cape Town.

As of early May, there is now rain in Cape Town. Residents are hopeful, but experts are still very cautious.

There doesn't seem to be any more talk of Day Zero.

I think they are worried that tourists will stay away because of the drought and that would be bad for their economy:
www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-drought-tourism/cape-towns-water-crisis-hitting-tourism-officials-idUSKBN1FM1PO

Tourists are apparently responsible for using only 1% of the water supply and will be advised to be careful if they do go there.

In Hong Kong we got deliveries of water by ship.one of ny dads tasks was to go on board and organise the unloading and my sister and I used to think this was a real treat.
Maybe an armada should be sent to Cape Town.

Just sent this link to a friend in Cape Town. She's very impressed that the Daily Telegraph is able to say that winter rainfall is expected. It's been expected every winter for the last four years but hasn't come....hence the drought. The DT must have links to a higher source than the South African meteorological office.

It's already Autumn. It is still scorchingly hot and there is no rain in sight.

I have just read the following in today’s DT and thought some of you might be interested.

As reservoir levels dwindle in the city, residents and visitors are already being urged to limit their water usage (many hotels have even removed bath plugs) – and even to name and shame those establishments not doing their bit. But tourists shouldn’t stay away. “Day Zero”, when Cape Town might run out of water entirely, is currently set for July 9, and winter rainfall is expected long before that
Read the full story at telegraph.co.uk/tt-capedrought.

It will be interesting to see if any U.K. government reacts to this information. They will of course have received the report.

The really weird thing is that London will get dryer but at the same time be under high risk from severe flood as a result of sea water rise from ice melt.

I mentioned that upthread vampire and the fact that they had a huge amount of rain on one particular day which has also helped.

A friend in Cape Town has told me that the switch off day has been moved back to June as so many people have taken on board the 'save water' message and are complying with the 50 litre usage. The rains are due to start in May so fingers crossed although they'll need an awful lot of rain to refill the reservoirs.

Whitewave Years ago (can't be more precise when or where but probably at least ten years ago ) I remember a survey and a "think tank" type report on the impact of climate change which predicted political and social conflict as water became a resource to be fought over. That could be contributing to the unrest all over the world, along with the opposing trends towards both globalisation of trade and the independence of smaller national units.

Yes, jalima, they do and, in SiL's words, they filled every othet blooming container they could lay hands on.

whitewave Sydney has far more rainfall than London which is interesting as most people would think that Sydney is relatively dry. They are far more careful with water conservation there, I think.

Do they have rainwater tanks kittylester, to collect the rain for their own use?

Good news all round! Much rejoicing at Zuma's finally getting the message!!

On the Capetown topic.

I had a message from my Sister in Law saying that they got rain and a new president all in one week and the excitement was almost too much to cope with.

They managed to harvest lots of water during the downpour and that cutting off of the taps has been put back to June by which time they expect the rains to have started.

My bil thinks it will take 3 or 4 years of average rainfall to get back to normal - if they are lucky enough to get that.

I’ve just put the following on a gardening thread, but thought it might be interesting on here.

DS has just received/ read a 10 year climate change report and apparently the world is heating up 30% quicker than modelled 10 years ago and as a result ice melt is speeding up with potential sea rise and catastrophic coastal flooding.

London is the 6th driest conurbation in the world and is under real risk.
There is expectation that there will be major events like flooding, drought extreme heat and cold but not necessarily every year.

The big concern is that this will cause major social disruption because of climate migration from areas where it will no longer be viable for humans and other species to live.

We can expect potential extreme political reaction in countries who see themselves under treat from the climate migrators and parties like the far right might well become dominant.

It makes sense really- look at Italy at the moment.

Grannyknot Thank you I stand corrected Capetonians (as in Aberdonian.)

My parents lived in Cape Town and Johannesburg

I wish them lots of rain!

Cherry That's wonderful news. The locals call themselves Capetonians .

Imagine if it rained once a month and kept Day Zero at bay.

I lived in Cape Town many years ago and the winters were very windy, wet and cold.

It has Rained in Cape Town!
Cape Towner's happy to feel the rain on their faces

Unfortunately it was only enough to push
Day Zero back from April to May

Yes, I agree it’s not your job Fitzy Best left to the experts not amateurs.

Jalima, contingency planning is very sensible indeed. But only in respect of those things you think there is some reasonable likelihood of happening. I’m not going to try to list what those might be and send a copy to the govt. Drawing up such a list is their job (or rather drawing up list of things we think might actually happen and preparing for them). But if we experience a huge earthquake despite never having had a major earthquake and not being on a fault line, I won’t blame them for not having put in place contingency plans.

Fitzy there’s a huge difference between the possibility of a flu pandemic and, as my example, Ebola in the UK.

Could you perhaps supply us with a list of potential catastrophes you would like us to strike off any contingency planning so we can forward this list to those in power and this save money - though I do have to point out again that these are NOTfunded from the NHS budget, unless of course you have evidence to prove otherwise ?

Since records began isn't all that long ago.

Contingency planning is a very good thing.

Jalima - agreed. But the level of rainfall is still the lowest recorded since records began. It’s just not sensible to direct limited resources away from athings we know will be needed to things we think are extremely unlikely to happen.

Meg - entirely logical. I was clearly referring to hugely unlikely natural disasters. As to the potential for an outbreak of ebola, I would say that we have recognised for some time that with international transport easily available, large populations, and the ever increasing risk of localised epidemics of a verity of diseases, the prospect of a pandemic is significant - so expenditure on preparing to combat that risk is money well spent. But I don’t think, for example, that we should spend UK tax money to prepare for the possibility of a drought of proportions exceeding those of any on record. That may happen - but if we have any spare money there are many other things we need to spend it on before we get to that one.