The city of Cape Town, South Africa is under extreme water rationing and heading towards complete depletion of its municipal water supply. When Day Zero — the day the tap runs dry — arrives, it will be the first major city in the world to run out of water.
The city of Cape Town, South Africa is under extreme water rationing and heading towards complete depletion of its municipal water supply. When Day Zero — the day the tap runs dry — arrives, it will be the first major city in the world to run out of water.
Though drought has ravaged much of the world in recent decades and severe drought continues over large swaths of Africa, to see a large, developed city run out of water raises questions for us all: Could this happen in Canada? If so, how might we prevent it?
We think of ourselves as the water wealthy country, but Canada is not immune to water shortages or disasters.
Last year, we had record drought over the southern Prairies, unrivalled dry conditions and forest fires in British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains, and unprecedented flooding in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin that left millions of Canadians reeling from either insufficient or excessive water.
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.
