Cape Town's Day Zero for World Water Day 2018

Happy World Water Day!  Last year, I wrote the following about my non-observance of the holiday and what I intended to do about it.

World Water Day is exactly the kind of holiday I should be celebrating on this blog, but it falls right when I've been doing statistics for the past six years...Here's to my remembering to observe World Water Day on time beginning next year, delaying the statistics post to March 23rd.  Water is more important than meta.

It is, indeed.  I begin this year's timely observance with UN-Water's World Water Day 2018: Nature for Water.

Every drop of water is on an endless journey through the sky, the soil and streams… …through our lives… and back into nature. In many places, our environment is damaged,  leaving us with polluted water or no water at all.
Nature is green infrastructure A system supplying us with the water we need to survive and thrive. Healthy forests and fields prevent soil and chemicals being washed into rivers. Lakes, wetlands and floodplains store, purify and control water. This World Water Day, explore nature-based solutions to our water challenges. World Water Day 2018 The answer is in nature.

Last year, I focused on the Flint Water Crisis.*  This year, it's the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa.  Follow over the jump for three videos from CBC's The National about this water story.

I begin with Cape Town's water situation dire, as 'Zero Day' looms.

Cape Town's water situation gets more dire with each passing day, as the city's self-proclaimed 'Zero Day' looms large. Residents have been asked to limit the amount of water they use each day, but the city's mayor says it's advice that's rarely followed. With concern over the crisis mounting and people scrambling to ensure they're prepared for a world without readily accessible water, the city's economic divide has never been more apparent.

CBC's The National continued its coverage with Solutions for saving water key to Cape Town's future.

Solutions for saving water are key to drought-stricken Cape Town's future, and are readily available. But getting residents to change the way they live to be more water-conscious is proving difficult.

The show concluded its report by looking at Singapore in Water crisis: What's the best solution? | The Question.

Cape Town isn't the only city facing a water crisis — in fact many around the world have been trying to find ways to conserve the invaluable resource; that led CBC News to ask: Is there a best solution to solving a water crisis? And if not, who's doing it best?

I am not surprised that Singapore is pursuing a high-tech solution that includes fees and taxes to its water problem; it's the national style.

*There are developments in Flint as well, but I'll post them next week.  Also, I have students researching the water situations in both Flint and Cape Town.  That should prove edifying and I'll report on that in May.  In the meantime, stay tuned for the statistics for the seventh year of this blog.