Graph of total water stored in the Western Cape's largest six dams (blue) as well as City of Cape Town water restriction level (orange) from November 2013 to August 2021.
The Cape Town water crisis in South Africa was a multi-year period in 2015–2020 of water shortage in the Western Cape region, most notably affecting the City of Cape Town. Dam water levels began decreasing in 2015 and the Cape Town water crisis peaked during mid-2017 to mid-2018 when water levels hovered between 14 and 29 percent of total dam capacity.
In late 2017, there were first mentions of plans for "Day Zero", a shorthand reference for the day when the water level of the major dams supplying the City could fall below 13.5 percent.[1][2][3] "Day Zero" became a term to mark the start of Level 7 water restrictions, when municipal water supplies would be largely switched off and it was envisioned that residents could have to queue for their daily ration of water. If this had occurred, it would have made the City of Cape Town the first major city in the world to run out of water in the municipal supply.[4][5] The Cape Town water crisis occurred at the same time as the Eastern Cape drought, located in a separate region nearby.
The City of Cape Town implemented significant water restrictions in a bid to curb water usage, which reduced its daily water usage by more than half to around 500 million litres (130,000,000 US gal) per day in March 2018.[6] The fall in water usage led the City to postpone its estimate for "Day Zero", and strong rains starting in June 2018 led to dam levels recovering.[7] In September 2018, with dam levels close to 70 percent, the city began easing water restrictions, indicating that the worst of the water crisis was over.[8] Good rains in 2020 effectively broke the drought and resulting water shortage when dam levels reached 95 percent.[9]
^Cassim, Zaheer (19 January 2018). "Cape Town could be the first major city in the world to run out of water". USA Today.
^Poplak, Richard (15 February 2018). "What's Actually Behind Cape Town's Water Crisis". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
^York, Geoffrey (8 March 2018). "Cape Town residents become 'guinea pigs for the world' with water-conservation campaign". The Globe and Mail.
^"Day Zero, when is it, what is it and how can we avoid it". City of Cape Town.
^Booysen, Marthinus Johannes; Visser, Martine; Burger, Ronelle (5 January 2019). Temporal case study of household behavioural response to Cape Town's Day Zero using smart meter data (Report). engrXiv. doi:10.31224/osf.io/6nckp. PMID 30472543.
^Narrandes, Nidha (14 March 2018). "Cape Town water usage lower than ever". Cape Town etc.
^Myburgh, Janine (29 June 2018). "Chamber delighted by Day-Zero's death". Cape Messenger. Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
^Pitt, Christina (10 September 2018). "City of Cape Town relaxes water restrictions, tariffs to Level 5". News24. Archived from the original on 12 December 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
^"After the drought: Cape Town's gushing water". GroundUp News. 7 September 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
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