'Day Zero Is Very Likely': Cape Town Prepares To Switch Off Water Supply

19 January 2018

 - The South African city of Cape Town – one of the world’s most famous tourist destinations – could run out of water by April as the city’s worst drought in a century takes its toll, officials have warned.

Some residents have already been forced to join queues for emergency rations amid warnings that ’Day Zero’ – the date taps will run dry – has crept forward to 22 April.

City authorities in the meantime are racing to build desalination plants and drill underground boreholes amid warnings the city could become the first in recent world history to run out water.

Almost 2 million tourists flock to Cape Town every year to bathe on sandy white beaches, explore natural features like Table Mountain or to sip wine in dozens of nearby vineyards.

Travel and tourism accounted for an estimated 9 percent or $33 billion of South Africa’s economic output last year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.