Looming Water Shutoff Threatens Cape Town Tourism
Skift Take
In less than 100 days, Cape Town may run out of water. While the impact on the city’s crucial tourism industry has been limited thus far, that could soon change.
Editor's Note: Gateway is a Skift series featuring first-hand, original stories from our correspondents embedded in cities around the world. The logo reflects where the correspondent is based and not necessarily the article's focus. Read about the series here.
South Africa’s Western Cape province, of which Cape Town is the provincial capital, is in the grips of the worst drought in a century. Below-average rains have seen the dams dry up, and despite increasingly draconian water restrictions, the city is now facing the prospect of what has been dubbed, somewhat apocalyptically, Day Zero: the day the taps run dry. In less than 100 days, Cape Town faces the unenviable accolade of becoming the first major city in the world to simply run out of water.
It’s a nightmare scenario that dominates c
