Table of contentsIntroductionOverviewWhat makes it a problem?ReferencesIntroductionCape Town, home to around 4 million people, is ranked the 10th most populous city populated in South Africa. Cape Town is a coastal city located in the southwest region of South Africa, at a coordinate of approximately 33.9249°S, 18.4241. The water crisis began in 2014, when the amount of rainfall captured in the Western Cape saw a dramatic decrease. Due to the severity of the crisis, it has been described as a "national disaster" by the South African government. It was at this crucial time that the taps had to dry completely, also known as “Day Zero”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get original essayOverviewDuring specific and crucial months, Cape Town receives rainfall that fills the water dams. These dams, also called reservoirs, provide Cape Town's main water supply. Since 2014, rainfall has gradually decreased year by year and has led to prolonged drought in Cape Town. This substantial decrease in water supply and the inevitable “Day Zero” has led city officials to ask residents to minimize excess demand by reducing their water consumption (Muller, 2018). Cape Town has 6 large dams installed which supply water. majority of water to the city and residents. They are known as the "big six", holding approximately 99.6% of the city's water capacity, with the remainder stored in minor dams. Figure 2 is a line graph that illustrates the total level of water storage in the Big 6 from May 1, 2014 to September 1, 2018. It can be seen from this graph that there is a negative correlation between the total storage of 'Big 6' water Big 6 and the dates shown correspond to the drought period in Figure 2. Specifically, there was a calculated 79.3% decrease in water stored in the Big 6 between on October 1, 2014 and May 1, 2018. Figure 2: Graph depicting total water storage in given months. If Day Zero arrives, which was indefinitely postponed in May 2018, the city will have to reduce its 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. What makes this a problem? The water crisis has had negative influences on the well-being of the 4 million Capetonians, disrupting different sectors of activity and exacerbating the effects of poverty leading to negative effects on the income of the city/country . For example, households in Cape Town only had access to 50 liters of water per day. This has led to different lifestyle changes, such as reducing showers to four minutes, reducing toilet flushes (if it's yellow, leave it soft), and restricting car washing and washing. gardening. The sudden change in household lifestyle has brought huge inconveniences. These disadvantages have exuberated the effects of inequalities within the country itself. For the wealthy, they were able to access water in many other ways, including digging boreholes, purchasing technological filters, and purchasing bottled water. With one of the highest GINI coefficients in the world, South Africa has a poor population, all the more vulnerable as it lacks access to water (Sieff, 2018). Different business sectors have also been affected by the crisis. At the urban and rural level, this has led to a significant reduction in the numberbusinesses that rely heavily on water, such as hair salons, car washes and gardening services. In particular, the tourism industry, which constitutes one of the country's main income, 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, growth in the tourism sector was only 2.6% in 2016 (Smith, 2017). This is considered a small improvement since the global average was 7%. Furthermore, the number of foreign tourists increased by less than 1% in December 2017, given 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 Maddy's rating agency. Cape Town was on the verge of being rated as junk, which some believed would affect the rating of the entire country. According to Anthony Turton, a professor at the Free State University, he says "there is no way a foreign investor will invest a penny in a country that cannot provide basic water and energy" (Tshwane , 2018). 1.3 Severity of drought. tReturn period is a term used to describe the estimated recurrence interval of an event such as an earthquake, drought, flood, etc. Through the scientist's analysis of WCWSS (Western Cape Water Supply System) dam rainfall zone data, it is concluded with high confidence that this drought will occur between 105 and 1280 years. Calculations and data show that the 2015-2017 dry period was the driest since 1933; it is significantly rare and serious (Wolski 2018). The depletion of the reservoir has caused serious concern for life in the country. In May 2018, the city measured that the Big Six were storing about 20.9% of their capacity. If it were to drop further to around 13.5%, Day Zero would be announced (Luxande & Mdunyelwa, 2018).1.4 Root Causes The meteorological phenomenon known as “ENSO” has led to a change in the global climate regime towards the east (Trenberth). As a result, instead of summer rainfall regions being located in parts of South Africa, they have shifted more towards the southern Indian Ocean and Madagascar (Hedrick & Dimmich, 2015). Drought has worsened by leaps and bounds due to climate change. According to Chris Funk, a climatologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he says that in recent years the "long rains" have declined. In normal years, Africa, particularly East Africa, receives less precipitation because warm, moist air rises from the western Pacific and dry, cool air descends around the East Africa. Over the past decade, water temperatures in the Western Pacific have been warmer than average. This is directly linked to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, worsening the severity of droughts in Africa (Baragona, 2017). Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Failure and lack of government regulation also contributed to the problem. Mainly, neither the local nor the country government has managed the problem effectively, thereby allowing excess demand to continue. Farmers and other big businesses continued to use the water supply, and governments didn't talk about it because they underestimated the severity of the crisis,1