Day Zero, Cape Town, South Africa

[rskovride]

Looks like they are trying to get desalination plants online.

[brewer]

I see that they have a desal plant about ready to go online (might be up now). Will only meet partial needs. Looks like they are constructing two more. 

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/...n-20180301

Maybe this is old news to the rest of you.

[vorlon13]

Article didn't seem as dire as the Air & Space blurb.

[The Grand Nudger]

Desal might have helped if they'd done it earlier...though it would have helped the rich more than the poor.  Too late now.

So there's lesson one, don't desal when you're behind the eight ball.

[Anomalocaris]

Don’t know if topography allows it, but a potential solution is to build aqueduct from outside the area that normally supports the city.

Aqueducts are enormously expensive long term projects requiring tremendous faith in long term planning. Major acquaint projects can take 50+ years to build. but once built they last almost forever.

[The Grand Nudger]

Cape Town regulates the sonderend watershed as it is.  An aqueduct would/could only serve the purpose that the damn infrastructure already accomplishes.

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Heres a handy image - in order to contextualize the comments above.

[Anomalocaris]

Cape Town regulates the sonderend watershed as it is.  An aqueduct would/could only serve the purpose that the damn infrastructure already accomplishes.

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Heres a handy image - in order to contextualize the comments above.

There is a collection of lakes about 150-200 miles north by north east of Capetown, with an intervening mountain range with appaarently low paths in between.  If these lakes have adaquate refill rate, then It might possible to build an pumped aqueduct from the lakes to Capetown similar to the Los Angeles aqueduct, which originates from Mono Lake almost 400 miles north of LA, Travels down Owen valley and is pumped over the tahachipe range north of LA into LA basin.   The power used to pump the water over the mountain range is far less than what it would take to desalinate a comparable amount of sea water.   Capetown appear to have similar population to LA and presumably broadly similar water needs.

[The Grand Nudger]

They'd be better off, imo, increasing their local surface water capacity, and increasing desal, combined with a deeper ground pull.  The problem isn't that they're doing the wrong things.  The problem is that the rate of change in their entire regions climate is outpacing their efforts, the drought only made that immediately apparent.

Had their planning not been borked by infighting and grift and general complacency they'd have already completed (more of) their planned improvements.

The most immediate solution is deeper wells. That's why those who have the cash to do it are drilling them.

[popeyespappy]

Capetown appear to have similar population to LA and presumably broadly similar water needs.

Probably not. Americans use more of practically everything per capita than anyone else including water. Residential water consumption is Las Angeles county runs about 106 gallons per day per person. That's about 400 liters each per day not including industrial, agricultural or other nonpersonnel uses. That's more than twice the pre-crisis per capita use in Cape Town from all consumption.

On a side note, the US in general has ten times the per capita reservoir capacity of South Africa.

[brewer]

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