IndexIntroductionOverviewWhat makes it a problem?ReferencesIntroductionCape Town, home to around 4 million people, is ranked as the tenth most populous city in South Africa. Cape Town is a coastal city located in the southwestern region of South Africa, a coordinate of approximately 33.9249°S, 18.4241. The water crisis began in 2014, when the amount of rain captured in the Western Cape dramatically decreased. Due to the severity of the crisis, the South African government has labeled it a “national disaster.” It was at this crucial point that the taps were expected to dry completely, also known as "Day Zero". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Overview During specific and crucial months, Cape Town receives rainfall that fills the dams with water. These dams, also known as reservoirs, form Cape Town's main water supply. Since 2014, rainfall has gradually decreased year after year, leading to a prolonged drought in Cape Town. This substantial decrease in water supply, and an inevitable “Day Zero,” led the municipal authority to tell residents to minimize excess demand by reducing water consumption (Muller, 2018). Cape Town has installed 6 major dams which provide most of the water to the city and people. They are known as the “big 6,” as they hold approximately 99.6% of the city's water capacity, with the rest stored in smaller dams. Figure 2 is a line graph illustrating the total level of water storage in the "Big 6" from May 1, 2014 to September 1, 2018. From this graph you can see that there is a negative correlation between total water storage of the Big 6 and the dates listed representing the dry period in Figure 2. Specifically, a 79.3% decrease in water stored in the Big 6 was calculated between October 1, 2014 and May 1, 2018. Figure 2 : Graph illustrating total water conservation in certain months. If Day Zero arrives, which had been postponed to May 2018, the city will have to reduce average water consumption from 522 million liters per day to just 43 million liters per day (Luxande & Mdunyelwa, 2018). In conclusion, the water crisis has affected both Capetonians, but also the entire country itself. What makes it a problem? The water crisis has caused negative effects on the well-being of 4 million Capetonians, disrupting several business sectors and exacerbating the poverty situation with negative effects on the city/town's revenue. For example, families in Cape Town were allocated only 50 liters of water per day. This has led to several lifestyle changes, such as reducing showers to four minutes, reducing toilet flushing (if it's yellow, let it soften), and limiting car washing and gardening. The sudden change in families' lifestyles has caused enormous inconvenience. These inconveniences have exaggerated the effects of inequalities within the country itself. The rich could gain access to water in many other ways, for example: by digging wells, purchasing technological filters and purchasing bottled water. With one of the highest GINI coefficients in the world, South Africa has a poor population that is all the more vulnerable due to a lack of access to water (Sieff, 2018). Various business sectors have also been affected by the crisis. For cities and countryside, this has resulted in a significant reduction in businesses that rely heavily on water, such as hairdressers, car washes and gardening services. InIn particular, the tourism sector, which represents one of the country's main revenues, has been significantly affected. The tourism sector contributes approximately 7.5% of the city's gross domestic production calculated in 2016 by the World Travel and Tourism Council. According to Stats SA tourism growth was only 2.6%.sector in 2016 (Smith, 2017). This is considered a poor improvement as the global average was 7%. Furthermore, the number of foreign tourists increased less than 1% in December 2017, taking into account the importance of the water crisis (Smith, 2017). As a result, many of those working in this sector were plagued by unemployment problems due to the crisis. Furthermore, the economy itself was alerted when its rating was threatened by the rating agency Moddy's. Cape Town was on the verge of being classified as junk, which some believed would affect the country's entire rating. According to Anthony Turton, professor at the Free State University, “it is not possible for a foreign investor to invest a penny in a country that cannot provide basic water and energy” (Tshwane, 2018). 1.3 Drought severity. tReturn period is a term used to describe the estimated recurrence interval of something happening such as earthquake, drought, flood, etc. Through the scientists' analysis of rainfall area data from the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS) dams, they conclude with strong confidence that this drought will occur in 105 to 1280 years. Calculations and data show that the 2015-2017 drought period was the driest since 1933; it is significantly rare and serious (Wolski 2018). The depletion of the basin has imposed considerable concern on the life of the nation. In May 2018, the city measured the Big Six storing about 20.9% of its capacity. If it drops further to around 13.5%, Day Zero will be announced (Luxande & Mdunyelwa, 2018).1.4 Root Causes The weather phenomenon known as “ENSO” has led to a shift in the global weather pattern towards the east ( Trenberth). As a result, instead of locating summer precipitation regions in areas of South Africa, they shifted more towards the southern Indian Ocean and Madagascar (Hedrick & Dimmich, 2015). Droughts have worsened by leaps and bounds due to climate change. According to Chris Funk, a climate scientist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, says there has been a decrease in “long rains” in recent years. In normal years, Africa, especially East Africa, receives less precipitation because warm, moist air rises from the western Pacific and dry, cool air sinks around East Africa. Over the past decade, western Pacific water temperatures have been warmer than average. This is directly linked to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which increases the severity of drought in Africa (Baragona, 2017). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Failure and Lack of government regulations have also contributed to the problem. First, both local and country governments have not managed the problem effectively, allowing excess demand to persist. Farmers and other large businesses continued to use the water supply, and governments remained silent because they underestimated the severity of the water crisis. Ultimately, the lack of infrastructure (number of dams) means that Cape Town was determined to fail as a first place city as the city relies solely on rainfall for its water resources. References Baragona, S. (2017, March 27). The experts,1