I decided to re-visit the Capetown water story as it has made people think..

But many of us know only that Capetown city faced a day when there would be no more water in its taps. But not much of the story before and after.. Here is that story, with many lessons for the rest of the cities across the world.. 

In 2007, South Africa's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry predicted that the growing demand on the Western Cape Water Supply System would exceed supply if water conservation and demand management measures were not implemented. Before the crisis, Capetown, a city of 4 million (around one-fourth that of Delhi) consumed 1200 million litres a day. Per capita per day consumption was 135 litres.

An El Nino-triggered drought in 2015 hit agricultural production and economic growth throughout South Africa. Cape Town was particularly hard hit, and lack of good subsequent rains around the city made its water shortage worse. The burden of making sure Day Zero did not happen rested largely on household's ability to cut down on water usage. 

Restrictions were imposed on 1 June 2017, limiting the usage of water to 100 litres per person per day. By early October 2017, following a low rainfall winter, Cape Town had an estimated five months of storage available before water levels would be depleted. "Water rationing through extreme pressure reduction" was implemented immediately. 

In early 2018, when the dam levels were predicted to decline to critically low levels by April because of lack of rain, the City announced plans for "Day Zero", when the municipal water supply would largely be shut off if a particular lower limit of water storage was reached, potentially making Cape Town the first major city in the world to run out of water.

Through water saving measures, the City reduced its daily water usage by more than half to around 500 million litres per day in March 2018. Residents lived with stringent consumption restrictions through most of 2018, at 50 litres per person per day.

Urban residents were requested not to flush the toilet after urinating, to flush using rainwater or greywater after defecating, and to reduce the length and frequency of showers. In order to conserve water, hand sanitizer was provided in offices and public buildings for use instead of conventional hand-washing. Some cafes began using plastic and paper cups and plates, to reduce dish-washing.

50 litres a day per person is just enough for a 90-second shower, 4 litres of drinking water / tea / coffee, neembu drink, etc., a sink-ful to hand-wash dishes or laundry, one cooked meal, two hand washings, two teeth brushings and one toilet flush. 

In September 2018, with rains having at last arrived and dam levels close to 70%, the city began easing water restrictions to 70 litres per person per day. Dam levels peaked at 76% and in November 2018, restrictions were reduced to 105 litres per person per day, aiming for a 30% saving on normal usage.  

In contrast, average water consumption in Delhi is estimated at 240 liters per capita per day. It is to be remembered that South Africa's per capita GDP is three times that of India as is its per capita water storage capacity. 

The 60% restriction in 2018 of water usage for irrigation by agriculture around Cape Town resulted in the loss of 37,000 jobs in the Western Cape Province and an estimated 50,000 people being pushed below the poverty line due to job losses, inflation and increases in the price of food.

27 EASY WAYS TO SAVE WATER

My husband and I don’t yet live on a property where it is feasible to personally store rainwater from our roof or to direct it below ground (although our residential complex does filter rainwater and allows it to seep down).  Neither does our property nor the complex have arrangements to redirect cleaned wastewater for flushing – though the wastewater is used for lawns.

Below are 27 methods we use to save water every day of our lives. It is worth remembering that it is only 60 % sustained reduction in water use that kept the taps in Capetown in South Africa, running last year. Water is short all over the globe, and tremendously in India :

Kitchen Use

1. Utensils such as trays and plates for tea cups are washed just with water as they are not dirty.
2. Oily utensils are wiped with newspaper cut outs and washed after that.
3. We constantly remind our staff to open the kitchen tap very little while washing utensils. They have been even fined for ignoring these instructions persistently.
4. Cut newspaper is used to soak up spills or dirty kitchen surfaces so there is less washing to do of cleaning dusters.
5. The foolish idea that stored drinking water becomes ‘stale’ overnight and is to be thrown is not followed at our place.
6. Water left in a glass or thermos is emptied in a bucket to be re-used.
7. RO wastewater is collected in a bucket via the waste pipe of RO made longer. The water is used for washing utensils / pocha / soaking clothes or with plants.
8. Guests are each given different design glasses so they can hold on to them for drinking water for the duration of their stay.

Domestic Use

9. We never wash any part of the floors.
10. We do pocha (swabbing) only of visibly unclean parts and only when they appear dirty.
11. When feasible, pocha water is reused with plants.
12. Many clothes are aired and re-used. Or soaked in a small amount of water for 30 min, wrung and dried. Only some portion of the clothes we wear everyday are put in the washing machine.
13. Same with pillow covers, sheets and blankets. Both sides of the material are used in turn and occasionally violently dusted outside. Only when a material has thus been used, it is then washed.
14. Carpets and sofa covers are dusted with teela jharoo (rough broom) kept for just this purpose. When occasionally grimy, they are cleaned off with hotwater and powder soap, thus saving on washing them. Very rarely do they have to be washed.
15. No leaks or drips in taps are tolerated. They are immediately repaired, and until then, that tap is kept closed.

Personal Hygiene

16. Concentrated liquid soap takes a lot of water to wash off. So we dilute it by about 100 percent.
17. A mug near the sink is used to fill water from tap and used for washing of face or brushing, rather than let the water run on in the tap.
18. Little water is used for bathing.
19. While waiting for hot water to arrive in the faucet, the cold water is gathered in a bucket and re-used for soaking clothes or swabbing.
20. Only as much water as needed is used for flushing by using the dual control switch of the flush tank.

Car and Garden

21. We wash our car in less than one bucket of water.
22. We use treated wastewater to water our lawns if available on day and time of watering.
23. The garden and the house is shaded with large green nursery cloth during summer, lessening the need for watering.
24. A lot of ‘mulch’ is left on the soil – compost, and even fallen leaves in side kyaris which again help keep soil from drying out, lessening the need for watering.
25. We grow hardy trees and vines apart from some palms and moneyplants. Not delicate plants that would need constant misting and humid environment.

Water for cooling during summers

26. We use small honeycomb pad coolers that use only 15 ltrs over 8 hours compared to normal medium sized woodwool coolers that use 100 ltrs overnight.
27. Because we keep our home well shaded in summer day time, and open to cool breeze night long, we need coolers and even fans much less than our neighbours :
1. The hard surfaces of the house like parking area which may get hot in day time, are kept shaded with green cloth.
2. The windows and doors that might receive sun or even hot winds are kept closed in the day and shaded OUTSIDE by plastic curtains / roller blinds / chiks / tirpals.
3. The roof is kept cool by thick cream / white tirpal spread out over the surface of the roof.