"Nobody really knows, because no city of Cape Town’s size has ever had to deal with a crisis of this magnitude. Water shortages are a familiar challenge for large cities in India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil: São Paulo, a city of 12 million people, came within 20 days of a complete shutoff in 2015, but was saved in the nick of time by rains. Even that close call led to the looting of emergency water trucks. In the Middle East, home to some of the world’s most water-poor countries, growing populations, overexploitation of resources, and mismanagement by authorities have led to similar crises: Conflict over scarce water resources is already a fact of life in war-torn Yemen."
Read MoreAmerica's Rural Areas Suffer From an Increasing Water Crisis→
/"Sparsely populated, low-income communities across the country suffer from polluted water—an injustice expected to worsen under Trump."
Read MoreClimate Change Could be Leading Cause of World's Many Water Crisises→
/"...in the Midwest, another water controversy is spilling into the headlines: Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources says it will decide within 90 days whether to give Foxconn, an electronics manufacturer building a factory near Racine, permission to divert seven million gallons of water a day out of Lake Michigan."
Read MoreCape Town, South Africa is Facing A Water Disaster→
/"In Cape Town, South Africa, they're calling it "Day Zero" -- the day when the taps run dry.
City officials had recently said that day would come on April 22. They have since moved up the date to April 12.
Cape Town is South Africa's second-largest city and a top international tourist draw. Now, residents play a new and delicate game of water math each day.
They're recycling bath water to help flush toilets. They're being told to limit showers to 90 seconds. And hand sanitizer, once somewhat of an afterthought, is now a big seller.
Read MoreDay Zero Looms Amidst Cape Town Water Crisis→
/"In the midst of the crisis, failing infrastructure across the metro is adding to the municipality’s woes, with almost half of the water produced being lost.
A mid-term report for the 2017/18 financial year, compiled by the municipality, showed that the metro lost 45% of its water supply in the five months to November last year. This includes water supplied but not paid for, such as water bill write-offs over the basic free allocation to assistance to the poor residents."
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