Water crisis hits Cape Town, schools resort to ration water

South Africa’s most popular tourist city is still battling drought conditions. The City of Cape Town is running out of water. The drought that’s plagued the Western Cape Province has dragged on for three years now.

Most dams in the region are down to just about 20% capacity. If dam levels continue to decline, the city’s taps will run dry by June.

Day Zero has been moved to the 4th of June, two months later than the 21st of April that was initially when the city was expected to run out of water. There’s been some rainfall. But the City has also implemented level 6B water restrictions, which means that daily consumption per person is down to just 50 litres per day.

The City enjoyed a bit of unexpected rain this week. 8mm of rain fell, not nearly enough though for the region to avoid Day Zero.