Cape Town Scrambles To Keep the Taps Running

摘要

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille says she has a new reason to hate Mondays: It's the day when she gets weekly reports on water levels in the city's dams. The numbers show that what has come to be known as Day Zero-when there's so little water most taps will stop running-will probably arrive in May, a month or two before the onset of South Africa's winter rains. "We have to change our relationship with water," says De Lille, who's filled in her swimming pool and collects water from her shower to flush her toilets. She spends 70 percent of her working day dealing with the crisis, she says. "We have to plan for being permanently in a drought-stricken area."