to think this is how future wars will start?

[MakeMisogynyAHateCrime]

I have just been reading on Twitter that with current consumption Cape Town is set to run dry of water on 21/04.
Residents are currently limited to 87L each but more than 60% are using more that the restricted amount so as of 01/02 the new limit will be 50l.

Does anyone else think this will be the kind of stuff the new wars are fought over? Literally battles to exist because of a lack of water. Sanitation we be out the window, the stench will be horrendous, riots will take over and people will die of disease and dehydration.

How have we fucked this planet is so badly?

It’s pretty widely known in the relevant academic circles that wars over water are inevitable. It’s not catastophising, it’s just fact.

I live in the Middle East and we are wholly reliant on desalinated water, and that’s not a pretty position to be in - it’s a bombing target, it’s absolutely fucking up the Gulf by making it more saline and therefore lowering fish stocks, and it’s wholly dependent on the country having the energy to power the plants. It’s a very vulnerable position to be in.

Its not a fact. It's conjecture. And in other relevant academic circles its completely disputed.

there is also a good chance that we'll all be dead long before the water runs out. (which isn't something we need to worry about for quite a long time in rainy northern europe anyway)

Tap Lake Victoria

I agree with your point op. Sudan and Egypt are almost at war with Ethiopia because of the dam they are building. This has been an issue for the last 100 years. Egypt has practically controlled all three counties, (now four, Uganda Ethiopia and Sudan/South Sudan) on how they use the river Nile. So much conflict over construction of electric dams and irrigation.

South African can't tap into lake Victoria. Geographically they are miles apart. There are two other lakes and waterfall (Victoria falls and they have to no rights to it) before you get to lake Victoria. The infrastructures not there and the most important thing is, lake Victoria is struggling as lake. It's drying up and that's excluding the amount of plant, fish and animals dying out.

Not forgetting, any major development that would be carried out on lake Victoria, Egypt and Sudan will get involved.

Ultimately - and the availability or otherwise of water is an expression of this - life on earth depends on one thing, and one thing alone. And if we can't manage that as a species - by whatever means necessary - then we can imagine a future where another species looks into glass cases at collections of bones with a label "H. sapiens" and some wibbling conjecture about how we evolved, and why we become extinct.

Hasn't most human migration has been driven by climate change ?

I guess its one of those times we are lucky to live on an Island, protected on all sides by sea and in a country where it rarely stops raining...

Which of course as someone said above means worldwide migrant movements to Europe for one will increase massively.

I guess its one of those times we are lucky to live on an Island, protected on all sides by sea and in a country where it rarely stops raining...

Yes, thank goodness we never have hosepipe bans, and water shortages .... (well, actually, we don't. But then we don't live in the oversubscribed South East).

Poverty will play a huge role between those who can distill salty water and those who can't.

Poverty will play a huge role between those who can distill salty water and those who can't.

Or ingenuity:

edition.cnn.com/2016/12/28/world/eco-solutions-fog-catchers/index.html

we'll come up with cheap desalination and purification techniques

we'll come up with cheap desalination and purification techniques

When we have cheap energy.

Climate change could make it much worse.

I was reading about this today and to be honest I'm surprised that they haven't invoked day zero already to try and replenish the water levels and force wasters to have to queue at standpipes for a reasonable ration according to family size eg 10 litres per person in a household disclaimer, that figure is plucked entirely from the air

That would stop all the people prioritising washing their car and watering their gardens with drinking water from wasting what's available and encourage people to be smart with grey water.

It's certainly not somewhere you'd consider going on holiday anytime soon. You can just imagine the furore of tourists getting unlimited water access vs the daily needs of the locals.

It's certainly not somewhere you'd consider going on holiday anytime soon. You can just imagine the furore of tourists getting unlimited water access vs the daily needs of the locals.

Any tourist to the UK is getting a roof over their head whilst the police are removing sleeping bags from rough sleepers ......

Any tourist to the UK is getting a roof over their head whilst the police are removing sleeping bags from rough sleepers ......

This is absolutely disgusting in any first world nation. It is hardly comparable to an entire city totally running out of water

Tap Lake Victoria ?

Wtf? The one shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania??

That's like telling people in San Diego struggling with water that they should tap Lake Huron!

Or people in Redruth should get water from Loch Ness.

Tap Lake Victoria ?

I think the question mark was mine ...

I also suggested towing icebergs, and harvesting sea mist. But all the good ideas in the world are useless without the political will to implement them. Which seems to be lacking here ....

I live in South Africa, so this is top of mind for us all here, I’m surprised it’s taken so long for international news to pick the story up.

3/4 years ago the dams were looking fairly healthy the problem is we have had 2 years of very little rain, desalination plants are being built but will take a few years and won’t provide enough water.

When you live in a developing country where millions of people already live in poverty with no water, electricity or toilet facilities - spending billions on desalination is a tough call, especially as you never know when it’s going to start raining again.

Severe water restrictions have been inplace for a while, but there will always be people who ignore them.

I worry about the impact on the poor, who might have to walk for miles and carry water home, then the safety and security aspects of this. I can see people being mugged for water. South Africa is notoriously bad at service delivery so the chances of having filled water tanks at the right places is unlikely.

Then there’s the impact on public health, tourism etc not great for a country in very dire financial straits at the moment.

However I’m sure Cape Town will not be the last major city to be in this position.

I am really shocked that this is the first I've heard of this crisis.

I’m another one who’s surprised this thread is the first I’ve heard of this issue. YANBU, OP.

Rosetti- what happens when Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania suffer drought, but have no water left, because they've given it all to south Africa?

The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.

We have a major high tech centre in India as a supplier

A few times now, they have had to stay home because their state and a neighbouring Indian state are turning to semi-official violence (national guard or whatever seem to take sides)

• low level fighting over water rights

Apparently the river flowing through both states has much less water than a few decades ago
so the 2 states are squabbling over who gets what.

I really don’t think I am catastrophisng one bit. People are already clearing supermarkets of their bottled water in CT.
if you can’t see how stuff like this could easily turn nasty then your deluded.

2015 will be absolutely nothing when it comes to refugees and migrants coming to north of the planet and I don’t blame them one bit. But there will be A LOT of pressure to stop them arriving here.

How has this crisis flown under the radar of mainstream media for so long?

I only heard about it a couple of days ago