As we continue to use our Earth for its natural resources and the land on which we tread on, our actions have caught up to us in a few ways. Climate changes statistically has increased as we continue to use fossil fuels, temperatures are rising and ice caps are melting, and we’re depleting natural resources, including arguably the most important one of all, water.
Cape Town, South Africa has been through much historical change and oppression. The entire country of South Africa has been through radical change and the citizens have done a lot to create Cape Town into a more metropolitan area where tourism is high and the city is booming with culture and opportunities. Cape Town is currently a very industrialized city where many tourists come and feed the economy, and yet, the town is losing its sources of water.
Day Zero, the newly given name for Cape Town’s looming last day with natural water resources is quickly approaching. Scientists have claimed the day could be approaching even as quickly as June, unless they find technological alternatives to push the day back. Residents are currently limited to their water usage to push the inevitable back, but nothing can stop the damage that has already been done.
Regarding what will happen after Day zero arrives, The Economist reports that residents will have to line up to get water resources. Packaged water will be distributed to the residents, around 7 gallons per person a day. On Day Zero, taps will be turned off for the roughly four million people living in Cape Town currently, and that day is fast approaching.
Day Zero has occurred since Cape Town gets almost all its water supply from rain-fed dams north of the city. Most winters these dams are replenished. Yet, over the past three years the rain has been suffering heavily. There has been an intense drought in Cape Town, thus forcing the supply to run out quickly. Day Zero is fast approaching, and the residents of Cape Town are attempting to conserve water, yet cannot escape the inevitable. Day Zero raises questions as to if more cities will face the same issue in the near future, and calls for action from humanity in order to change the course of nature’s future. Day Zero is a day of reckoning in regard to Earth and environmental conservation, a change is necessary and society must be called to action to change our ways.