Here's How Cape Town is Fighting the Water Crisis

As Cape Town continues to grapple with the worst drought on record, local tourism leaders are predicting that the impacts of the water crisis will be felt for years to come.

Already hotels in the port city have begun building their own desalinization plants in an effort to provide clean water without relying on the grid.

Locals meanwhile are restricted to showers of 90 seconds or less, according to Bloomberg.

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It is anticipated that on July 9, Cape Town officials will have to turn off water supplies to residents because of the drought. Although the rainy season starts in May and could provide some relief.

The drought is isolated to Cape Town. Go 45-minutes inland, and there is water.

During an interview with Bloomberg, Sisa Ntshona, CEO of South African Tourism said many new measures, innovations, and changes are being implemented to help Cape Town address the crisis both in the short term and over the long term. Those measures range from developing new shower heads to implementing new codes that buildings must follow to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable over the long term.

Both the country and the city are also investing in their own desalinization plants, in addition to the already mentioned plants being built by hotels. Hotels are effectively taking themselves off the grid so they can become self-sufficient, Ntshona told Bloomberg.

The city has also initiated a "Day Zero" awareness campaign aimed at influencing Cape Town citizens and their behaviors with regard to water.

“We view the water crisis as not just isolated to Cape Town, it’s a global phenomenon,” Ntshona said during the Bloomberg interview. “World class cities, such as Los Angeles, Beijing, Sao Paulo, are going through the same thing and a lot of them have had to put in water restrictions. Right now the world is looking at Cape Town to build some form of a playbook to use in response to a water crisis. This is setting the new norm for our relationship to water.”

Tourism is a critical part of the local government’s 20-year view of industries that will shape the economy. In Cape Town, 300,000 jobs depend on tourism. Ntshona said the jury is still out on how the crisis is impacting the tourist industry in both Cape Town and South Africa as a whole.

“We are still saying Cape Town is open for business,” Ntshona said. “We want to encourage tourists, however, we want them to be mindful of the water restrictions and adhere to them.”

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Tourists, however, can play their part. When going to a hotel, hang your towels to avoid them having to be washed.

Many large conferences and events scheduled to take place in Cape Town are also working to be water neutral so that they don’t impact the host community and drain its precious resources. For instance, the upcoming Cape Town Cycle Tour, in March, will bring 15,000 people to the city. It will be a water-neutral event where all contestants bring their own water.

“Some are even saying they want to make it water positive—by the time they leave, they will leave more water behind than they consume themselves,” Ntshona said.