One Approach to Water Scarcity: Day Zero

In the face of extreme water scarcity, local governments established “Day Zero” as a day where strict water regulations and distribution would be imposed on its citizens. Day Zero would be implemented when dam levels dropped to 13.5%. In January 2018, Cape Town announced that it would be implementing Day Zero on its 4 million citizens on April 12, 2018 due to drought and lack of available water and rainfall (City Lab). As part of Day Zero, people would line up to collect a limited amount of water, roughly the amount of a two-minute shower daily per person. The idea of Day Zero made people extremely frantic and caused people to voluntarily cut back on their water consumption. When Cape Town residents’ water usage was cut by over half of the current usage (Wolski 2018), Day Zero was cancelled.


Figure 1: Cape Town is located on the southern most tip in South Africa (Source). 

So what happened? How did Cape Town avoid this catastrophic day?


Cancellation of Day Zero was a result of many factors. The announcement of Day Zero in January 2018 alone resulted in the residential consumption of water to drop by roughly 30% (City of Cape Town). Water consumption by household was publicized and a daily countdown to Day Zero (April 12, 2018) was released. The Cape Town government implemented penalties on those who used a large supply of water through the creation of water tariffs. The Cape Town  government also installed a new water-pressure system that reduced city water consumption by 10% (Grist).

How does agriculture tie into this? Especially in a place where agriculture plays such a significant role?

In addition to these measures, the national government placed limits on water allocated for agriculture. Out of the total water supply, agriculture was restricted to using 10 percent (Arcanjo 2018). Farmers - at their own volition - started using less water, leaving a larger supply for residents in denser populated areas. More efficient agriculture practices were taken up. Additionally, farmers diverted excess water to the city, which was originally meant to be used for agriculture (City Lab). Unfortunately, some farmers were adversely impacted by the drought in Cape Town. Many agricultural jobs were lost when the land dried up and crops failed to grow properly based on water scarcity. This is why it is essential to discover and implement new technologies that are less reliant on rainfall in Cape Town (The Guardian).


The collective effect of all of these actions resulted in increased discussions about Day Zero and its impact, the dire lack of water supply and the need to improve public awareness about water issues. It seems that people decreased their water consumption and reacted strongly following the release of a disaster plan, which publicized the potentially enormous consequences of a lack of action. This plan, the “City's Critical Water Shortages Disaster Plan,”was widely publicized in the media and instilled fear into people (Booysen et al. 2019). Certain ameliorative actions became acceptable and accepted on a larger scale because almost everyone was at risk of being negatively impacted by lack of available water. Farmers realized they needed to take action to reduce water usage because there would be no hope for growing crops in the future with no water supply, which would result in a large food crisis. From January 2015 to January 2018, daily household water usage decreased from 540 Liters to 280 Liters (Booysen et al. 2019).

These collective actions to reduce water use resulted in an overall larger water supply and resulted in Day Zero being pushed back. Eventually, rainfall returned to normal levels and eliminated the risk of Day Zero for the time being. Even so, Cape Town is still facing drought conditions and so water use must continue to be monitored (Grist).




Some doubt the existence of Cape Town's Day Zero and believe it was orchestrated by the government. Whether Day Zero was only an existential threat or not, studies do show that Cape Town experienced extreme drought conditions. Piotr Wolski, a hydro-climatologist at the Climate Systems Analysis Group in South Africa, conducted a study validating the severe drought conditions existing in Cape Town in the years 2015-2017; he noted that Cape Town was the driest it had ever been since 1933. He argues, with 90% confidence, that a drought with that level of severity would not occur again in the Western Cape Water Supply System region for another 105 to 1280 years. His more precise estimate is 311 years (Wolski 2018).

I find the case study of Cape Town's Day Zero extremely interesting because it shows that when there is a looming problem that impact people on a large scale, people join together and take collective action to ensure the problem is somewhat resolved. Saving water became the norm, and those who consumed large amounts of water were shamed. Similarly, for our global climate change issues to be somewhat resolved, I believe the norm of our consumption habits and the comfort of our daily lifestyles must be changed. People must accept not having the newest technology/item and being a little more "uncomfortable" as normal. Overall, this can only occur on a large scale if people realize the drastic consequences of our actions on themselves and on the planet.

If you are interested in learning more about the City of Cape Town's current water use, check out the Water DashBoard website shown below. This website shows Cape Town's current water use, dam information, and more.

Day Zero: Water4CapeTown