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Cape Town, home to Table Mountain, African penguins, sunshine and sea, is a world-renowned tourist destination. But it could also become famous for being the first major city in the world to run out of water.
Most recent projections suggest that its water could run out as early as March. The crisis has been caused by three years of very low rainfall, coupled with increasing consumption by a growing population.
The local government is racing to address the situation, with desalination plants to make sea water drinkable, groundwater collection projects, and water recycling programmes.
Meanwhile Cape Town's four million residents are being urged to conserve water and use no more than 87 litres (19 gallons) a day. Car washing and filling up swimming pools has been banned. And the visiting Indian cricket team were told to limit their post-match showers to two minutes.
Such water-related problems are not confined to Cape Town, of course.
Nearly 850 million people globally lack access to safe drinking water, says the World Health Organisation, and droughts are increasing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jelizondo on Saturday January 13 2018, @05:46PM (10 children)
Tsk, tsk. Talking about elephants while hiding your own. The GDP of SA was $3,445.7 U.S. dollars in 1994 (the year Mandela came to power) and today is $5,284.6 U.S. dollars. Unlike you, I give you a reference for the data: The World Bank. [opendataforafrica.org]
Have you ever even visited SA? I know the country and I do have family there and no, it is not a shithole. Could it be better? Certainly. If I kidnapped you and then transported you to Cape Town, Johannesburg or any other city in SA, you would think you were in some American city.
The only valid point you make is that is currently governed by a bunch of kleptocrats.
(Score: 4, Touché) by crafoo on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:12PM (3 children)
Tsk Tsk yourself. Cape Town's murder rate is 1.5x Detroit. Yes, it is indeed a shithole.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:54PM (2 children)
DAYUMN! They need some gun control, don't they?
GASP! They DO have gun control! Well, why isn't it working? Why, why WHY does gun control always fail? Capetown is like Detroit, or Chicago, or any other liberal US city! SHOCKING! I'M SHOCKED, I tell you!
http://ewn.co.za/2015/03/10/South-African-gun-laws-back-in-the-spotlight [ewn.co.za]
Just ask any European, he'll tell you that Capetown must be a shithole. Europeans don't kill each other like those nasty Africans, or Americans.
As an aside:
Plinking. I grew up with a .22 rifle. Any given weekend, I could be found down by the railroad tracks and creek, shooting at whatever. After joining the Navy, I asked a Mexican buddy if he wanted to go plinking. He says, "What's plinking?" I tell him we can walk along and shoot cans. He says, "What kind of cans?" I tell him, "AfriCANS, Puerto RiCANS, MexiCANS, any kind of CANS we can find!" He grins, and says, "What about AmeriCANS?" I laugh, and tell him sure, but they aren't worth anything, because they are EVERYWHERE!
Manuel turned out to be a pretty good shot, considering he didn't grow up with a rifle!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jelizondo on Saturday January 13 2018, @10:23PM (1 child)
That was a good joke. Sorry you got downmodded but sometimes SN is like that.
You can own and carry a gun in SA. The main difference is that you must get a permit and getting the permit entails a “competency test” (i.e. you know how to handle a weapon safely), having no Police record and getting all of your personal information recorded, including fingerprints along with details about the authorized weapon.
In my opinion, a sane approach to letting citizens own weapons as opposed to “gun shows” in the U.S. where any lunatic can buy a weapon and then wreck havoc in the neighborhood.
A bit over half (55%) of the murders are stabbing or blunt-object lessions and mostly is black-on-black on the towns.
Now, an interesting thing I’ve seen only in SA. You can hand your handgun to the airline at check-in on domestic flights and they will promptly return it to you after landing. It doesn’t have to be on your checked luggage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:46PM
"a sane approach to letting citizens own weapons"
learn the difference between a right and a privilege.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday January 13 2018, @10:05PM (2 children)
So barely even keeping up with inflation then.... Zero Growth or net negative growth perhaps.
In 2016, the relative value of $3,445.00 from 1994 ranges from $5,200.00 to $8,780.00.
https://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ [measuringworth.com]
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ [usinflationcalculator.com]
What you consider the only valid point is rather educational all by itself. Especially with the present trend of importing the kleptocrats into the EU at record rates just so there will be someone to milk the cows, only to find out they aren't interested in that kind of cow.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jelizondo on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:08PM (1 child)
Thank for the reply. Indeed, it could be much better, as it was during 2010-11 but the government is more interested in lining their pockets than in doing good for the country.
Now, my point was that the parent poster pulled figures out of his behind to support his opinion of white being superior to black. The GDP has never been $13k dollars, so clearly it was made up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @04:45PM
Maybe before "those changes" the blacks weren't counted at all so the GDP was 13k dollars per white capita ;).
And life was just great for most of the whites and pretty crappy for the blacks.
The blacks aren't doing themselves favors though (we're not monkeys, whooooo ninja-style!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_JD_v2kIzk [youtube.com]
Reminds me of those Muslims firebombing buildings and shooting people because some cartoons linked Islam to violence and terrorism ;).
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:54AM (2 children)
Well I happened to have another tab open on gab at the time and a chart had just went by, so I scrolled back up and used it. Seemed like serendipity. And no I have no intention to get into dueling footnotes because it is a no win scenario. But because I'm a giver, I just dug it back out for ya:
post with chart of SA GDP denominated in USD [gab.ai]
And no, I would not want to visit. When a country gets refugee camps it is probably not a tourist destination anymore. While parts might resemble some U.S. cities it is only because of our cities are also shitholes that I wouldn't be caught in after dark. Plus SA now has two decades of black rule and I can't think of any nation or city so ruled that is safe and prosperous. My own US State has a horrifying murder rate twice the U.S. average but SA doubles mine. (first page of google results level of research only) And that is comparing to the country as a whole, urban centers are probably the high crime areas there as they are here. Nope. Pass.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:03AM (1 child)
Thank you for your kind reply.
Please let me say a couple of things. One, I’m not a Southafrican so I really don’t care very much about what the world thinks about that country. I do have family there and yes, I know a bit of the country, but it is not an honor-thing to defend them and/or explain their ways.
Some of my family lives in KwaZulu-Natal, a province (state) which has a murder rate higher than the national average, but not the highest. However I do not know of anyone (family, friends or acquaintances) killed there. Some will say it is just white privilege speaking and maybe, just maybe, that is the right explanation. But I have travelled through the country and have never felt less safe than in Houston or San Francisco or Miami and maybe, as you say, it is because we’re now used to shitty cities.
I don’t have hard data because “race” is not tracked on the statistics but my observations point to murder being mostly black-on-black and my opinion (again no hard evidence) is that when you or I see a black person, we see that: a black person. Whereas a black person in SA sees a Zulu, Xhosa or any other ethnicity (tribe) and some of them are sworn enemies to the death.
In a more familiar way, when you or I see an Asian we have no clue if they are Korean, Japanese or Chinese. However an Asian will tell you immediately to what ethnic group they belong because of a “funny nose” or a turn of phrase that is a clear indicator of ethnicity to another Asian and to which we are blind.
Second, the per capita GDP of SA has never been $13 thousand dollars. Maybe someone scrambled ZAR and USD on the chart you referenced. Not to dispute that the country has seen better years (2010-11 is an example of much better), but in general the GDP [google.com] has been growing, just not with the current government.
Finally, would I move to SA? Probably not. Will I go again this year for 3-4 weeks? Definitively yes. Being forced to move and given a choice, where would I go? To Canada or New Zealand. :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @12:59AM