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?

Nuclear power is a good option, cheap reliable energy, plus it makes hydrogen which could be used for hydrogen fuel

Rosetti I don't understand the brick thing. Can you explain?

We use an awful lot of water flushing toilets.

Putting a brick in the cistern reduces the water usage by roughly 1 litre.

Or a million litres per flush if spread out over 1 millions houses.

ideally all modern flushes should be dual-volume anyway ...

Nuclear power is a good option, cheap reliable energy, plus it makes hydrogen which could be used for hydrogen fuel

I'm a massive fan of nuclear, not that it means much.

Nuclear doesn't make hydrogen directly. But the electricity it generates can ...

As a fuel hydrogen needs work.

At the end of the film "The Big Short' the update about the guy who made millions because he had identified the problems before the banking crisis was that he now only has investments in one industry - water!

Thanks DGRossetti....and apologies for spelling your name wrong!

Thank you for you replies. I’m learning so much.

To everyone wondering why you’re only hearing about this now, unfortunately the answer is simple - the majority of people in South Africa are poor and not white - therefore of little interest to the media.

I think they will be fought over food supplies. Especially if something isn't done about population increase.

I've worked with a group of 'preppers' in the US for a project a while back. It was really, really enlightening and a bit scary.

I had no idea about this. Quite disgusting that it hasn't been on the news.

I'm surprised people are supprised. They have been talking about water shortages for as long as I can remember. 30+ years.

Don't think you are safe in the UK, there are often droughts and a long one could happen and send supplies dangerously low.

No idea what happened, but in the 1980s a series of earth-girdling satellites was launched to provide global positioning so playboy millionaires could own a yacht without getting lost .....

GPS was launched so the US military could kill its enemies more easily. It was made available for civilian use because Korean Air Lines Flight 007 got lost and the USSR shot it down killing all 269 on board, and GPS would help prevent such an incident occurring again.

/offtopic

I had no idea about this. Quite disgusting that it hasn't been on the news.

It has been on the news, well, the news on Radio 4 anyway.

Must have missed that then as I listen to R4 every morning before work and BBC news at dinner.

It’s scary stuff, I think you can understand the rise of ‘preppers’ etc who build shelters and stock up on non personables when you read things like this..

Resource wars are already under way - I remember reading that the Arab Spring was partly precipitated by the rise in food due to bad harvests. That's only going to get worse with climate change as Africa, India and the Arab peninsula all have young populations, all are water stressed and all are likely to see a rise in temperature to the point that parts of their countries will be uninhabitable.

I seriously think about prepping, but the truth is, if things get that bad, we are fucked in the UK anyway. Too many people, not enough land. I just keep enough tins on hand to last through an immediate crisis and hope we have something approaching an organised Government for when it comes.

South Africa has a Mediterranean climate. Every several years there's a drought. Then it breaks. That's the natural order. Perhaps read Steinbeck's 'To A God Unknown' about another Mediterranean climate, California.

Strangely I just watched the movie The Big Short last week. At the end there was a synopsis as to what the main characters are doing now.
The man who had the foresight to see that the housing market was about to collapse is now investing in water !!!!!

Depends where one is.
In the UK, the south east has a water problem. The north west has no water problem. Here (Cornwall) we have an even sillier situation. Some areas are at risk of short supplies in summer, others are relatively secure. We also have a severe issue of 4 million plus visitors a year which artificially exacerbates the problem from May to September.
The planet is over 70% water. Desalination is relatively simple.
The UK was once describes as a water-soaked island of coal and gas floating on a sea of oil with potential food supplies for 500 years.
That was then...

This is the sign at arrivals at Capetown airport.

The city where I live built a desalination plant after a series of droughts. Of course, since it’s been finished we have had normal rainfall again and apparently it currently only produces 2% of our water supply. Still, with population growth and climate change it’s good to have.

I imagine part of the problem is that Australia has more m9ney available for such projects than South Africa.

Wow. I had no idea about Cape Town. And I read the news a lot.

The stuff of nightmares heads to the Preppers board

In the UK, the south east has a water problem. The north west has no water problem.

I seem to recall hearing once that more fresh water is poured away daily in overflow from the Kielder Dam than the South East uses.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielder_Water

The reservoir's main use is to provide compensating discharges into the North Tyne to support abstractions of water further downstream. It also underpins the £167m Kielder Transfer Scheme, where water can be transferred to the Wear and the Tees rivers, to meet shortfalls in those areas. In recent years, Kielder Water has become increasingly important, with underground springs ensuring that it always remains at high levels, regardless of the prevailing climate condition. This means that while the south of England is often forced to implement drought strategies and hosepipe bans, north east England enjoys plentiful water supplies.

There is something so fucked up the UK, where people would rather live in the South East and suffer droughts and whinge about it, than either (a) spend some money (from the house prices) and sort their own water supply out, or (b) up sticks and go where there's too much water ???? It can only be because people in the South East value something higher than water ?

Chinese seem to have an idea : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%E2%80%93North_Water_Transfer_Project

Of course in a country where the M25 was proposed in the 50s, and only just managed to be opened in the 80s, we can expect to wait a couple more generations ....

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17078727

(I bet Carillion would have been building it ....)

The planet is over 70% water.

Er, not it's not.

no it's not