South Africa’s Catastrophic Water Problem

Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images

Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive

Special thanks to MapTiler / OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3

[imalright]

Two political parties utilizing a disaster to blame each other rather than come together to end the suffering of the people they govern… What a novel concept

[CaraTheStrange]

I remember all those “day 0” warnings, the water saving habits we learnt in 2018 are hard to unlearn, like not flushing if its just pee. I was in a boarding school and we used massive buckets to catch shower water and flush the toilets with that water.

[capetownwild]

Lived in Cape Town my whole life and it was quite the thing to live through. It got really tight in the end. Strict rationing and penalties handed out. A lot of the taps you see people filling up their large water containers is mountain/spring water and those springs are scattered around Table Mountain. They all had queues for the first time I had ever seen.

There are also water tunnels under town that funnel water from Table Mountain., under town and into the ocean but not used as such for water consumption.

There were lots of ideas and solutions at the time but as the rains have come back, peoples memory wanes and life threatening drought gets replaced by a COVID shut down.

[sanji]

around 18 years ago there was a drought in europe, and our elementary school teacher told us that we had to learn how to use less water, and not let the water run while brushing teeth etc.
to this day i admire him for trying to teach us kids from Bergen, Norway a town with more than 200 days of rain a year how to conserve water.

[Lankyblankman]

I live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Our 'day zero' is a looming threat in all our minds, only ever being delayed by some small rainfall this very warm and dry winter. We never know if next week the taps will be shut off. We've been experiencing drought for nearly the last 9 years, and little has been done. This is the ANC's South Africa.

[gabrielfraser]

I should emphasize, although the Western Cape Province is run by the DA, while the national government is run by the ANC, this isn't quite comparable to the US, where Texas is run by one party, while the federal government is run by another. Our provincial governments have very little power to make their own laws or pursue their own policy - their job is primarily administration.

[melissalubbe]

I arrived back in Cape Town after living in Canada in December 2017. The shock of how water was wasted in Canada (I had a friend who would take like 30min showers to warm up) compared to what we had to do at home was so stark. We would shower with half presser, turning the tap on only to rinse soap off, and with a bucket to collect the run off which we used to flush the toilet once a day.

The really scary part is that there are more cities, just up the East Coast, like Gqeberha (previously known as Port Elizabeth) that are going through the same thing, but because they are not as popular as Cape Town it is not as published. Yesterday I heard that the hospitals don't have enough water to wash laundry so they can't admit patients.

[bravoth]

As someone who lives in Cape Town, apocalyptic is no exaggeration. It really felt as if society was about to decend into chaos in early 2018.

Thankfully those winter 2018 rains came in clutch.

[alexanderblackie]

I currently live in another town in South Africa. It's called Grahamstown/ Makhanda in the Eastern Cape. The water crisis has continued here, to the point where they frequently do half and half days, wherein only one-half of the town will have water one day. And the other half can have it another day. Also, the tap water is undrinkable, so you have to buy bottled water as a grocery item.

[gakpo_era]

Excellent video. I moved to Cape Town at the height of the drought (great timing) and we had to have buckets in our showers to capture whatever water we could, and then use that to water the plants and flush the toilets etc. (one of many frustrating and scary remedies we had to implement)!

Also, a note on pronunciation that SA'ns will appreciate: apartheid is pronounced apart-heyt. It is something of a compound word in Afrikaans and the T and H aren't meant to be read together, and D's are often pronounced as T's :p

[shingon]

Monterrey, the second largest city in Mexico, experienced massive water shortages because of a heavy drought in June and July of this year (2022) and it was exactly the same: the national government blamed the local government, the local government blamed the national government, and in the end no one gave a definitive solution to the crisis. I guess this kind of situation is a problem everywhere.

[warrenslater]

Look up Port Elizabeth. It’s another city, about 700km east of Cape Town.

We’ve had a much much bigger water issue here for the last 11 years and neither the local nor national government have even tried to fix it.

Cape Town gets all the press because it’s a popular tourist destination but other large cities are suffering worse than they are.

[DeanPaarman]

Yeah, it was quite something to live through. This is an incredible overview, captured all aspects. No one else has summarised it this thoroughly. Have enjoyed your channel for years, but to see a video about something I lived through gives me a newfound respect for the level of research and detail you put into your videos. Thank you for covering this.

[dextercochran]

"Cape Town is facing a huge water crisis!"

*SHOWS DRONE FOOTAGE OF ENORMOUS GOLF COURSE NEXT TO A SOCCER STADIUM*

[gracekruger]

I lived in Somerset West, a town near Cape Town, it was really a tough to live in. The restrictions became a way of life and some people still follow some of the lesser restrictions. I remember if you went to a shop, all water bottles in the them were gone or super expensive.
Though now it is way better.

[timkirsten]

As a Capetonian I'm really impressed with your research and nuanced video. The mention of the impact of invasive plant species was great, it's often overlooked here.

[ThapeloTP]

Great video, as a South African this was an unbelievable situation to live through. You should do another Video about the drought happening right now.
In the Eastern Cape Province's biggest city the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. They have hit day 0.

By the way, the people of Cape Town are called Capetonian's 🙂

[thecatat]

Thank you for a very good and objective report. We Cape Tonians came together as one and we all did our bit to save water. Every time I open a tap now, I think twice and use water sparingly. I vividly recall when the first rain fell how the people whistled, screamed and shouted with joy! Finally it rained ... the drought has broken ...

[burnshirtvalleyfarm]

"A very limited source of water" Shows water being dumped onto the ground.

[CrushedFemur]

I was living in Cape Town when Day 0 was supposed to happen. I showered every other day for only up to 5 minutes, flushed the toilet with that water, UCT didn't have running sinks at the time and just had hand sanitizer. I had it good by comparison to people who live in the townships, thats for sure. It was apocalyptic to be sure