Ruby:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

how is your water situation going in SA ?????

[Ruby]

Uh oh. That is a loaded question CH! As far as I know, most of the rest of SA is managing fine for now, but here in the Western Cape and periphery, it is decidedly an epic fail and disaster of unimaginable proportions. By the time they switch the water off to the suburbs, which is what is planned for mid-April, our feeder dam levels will have sunk to 13%, most of which is not potable/usable. How city planners and national and local government failed to prepare for this situation is quite unbelievable. It’s like someone pulled a plug and has just been mesmerized, watching the water flow down the drain! We should have had contingency measures and enforced water restrictions in place years ago. There have been studies and reports and climate change people and scientists have been warning the so called city fathers and mothers about this eventuality for decades – there’s been a huge influx of people into the area, poor rainfall over the past few years, seriously dodgy distribution of what water there is, and no new catchment facilities built. Add party politics into the mix and it’s catastrophic.
 
The bottom line is (apparently) that the Cape Town CBD will continue to be fed water so that the city itself can stay functional, the informal settlements will be fed water or there will undoubtedly be a war, and as usual, the regular joes who have been paying their rates, trying to save water, getting penalised heavily for not doing so etc., etc., ad nauseam, will be cut off completely. Absurd - the logistics of water distribution points and collection of that water are just too mind boggling to contemplate, and then there are the hospitals, care homes and so on that are scattered all over the place. Politicians making the plans again - not engineers. Heaven help us.
 
So to answer your question, it’s a bit crazy and a bit stressed around here – plastics industries are making a fortune because everyone’s buying whatever containers they can lay their hands on and the debates/discussions/arguments have to be seen and heard to be believed. Stockpiling of drinking water, a lot of which is ironically bottled using municipal water sources, we collect every drop of grey water for things like flushing the toilet – many people like the elderly and infirm can’t, of course, so we’re going to have to help our neighbours – I dunno! We’re all going to smell rank – we've been asked consume no more than 50 litres per person per day, already pipes are getting blocked because of no flow, we have one minutes showers, gardens are a thing of the past, cars are all wearing a fine grime veneer - a badge of honour! Anyway – in my opinion it’s all down to filthy politics, power and profiteering. Disgraceful that a city such as this should come to such a pass. What can we do?? We’ll get on with it, as usual, and make a plan – someone will probably invent something fantastic, and eventually the rains will come. Until then – we’ll be lugging buckets around and finding ingenious ways to keep ourselves going. The big problem will be if businesses and schools, for example, have to close for want of facilities. Then there will be chaos.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

thanks for that Ruby...didn't realise the situation had got that dire (I thought our water problems in summer were bad enough each year!)

[Ruby]

^Yep – it’s dire, but we’ll survive. It’s quite incredible how quickly one can adapt to not just carelessly turning on a tap; then again, millions have never had one to turn on in the first place, which is a sobering thought. 

There will be consequences, both predictable and unforseen, but fortunately we are extremely resilient and resourceful beings, and even although it’s a big strain and worry for most of us, there are some amazingly ingenious ideas out there! For example, people have been buying gardening spray containers that have a basic pump action and are using them to shower under – it’s such a fine spray that you can have a whole five minute shower standing under this thing, apparently (luxury!!), and yet only use 5 litres of water or less. We are fitting alternative nozzles into taps and quickly learning how to recycle grey water - measures that should have been taken ages ago. It will be like camping, for an extended period, and I’m sure the makeshift novelty will wear thin, but hope springs eternal, etc., etc!! Hopefully springs will spring eternal as well since we're now dipping into the aquifers.  I've decided not to panic - yet.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

the situation here has never been that bad, but it has been bad (similar climate)....

our State Govt is now in the process of purifying sewerage back to pristine water to re-enter the water supply for the future...
a lot of controversy with that one for obvious reasons, but if its safe and works then our supplies will get us through the toughest summer..

also, has been a lot of talk of pumping sea water from the ocean and converting that to fresh water...