Zero Day

Have you been reading about the water crisis in Cape Town? If you follow cricket, you must have surely read about how the city doesn’t have enough water and they were unsure how to water the ground before the first Test of India’s ongoing tour.

If you haven’t, please read. The biggest reservoir in the city’s water system has mostly evaporated. The shoreline continues to recede 1.2 metres every week. And the city has predicted Zero Day - tentatively April 16 - when they will have to shut down taps across 75% of the city. Taps will run dry.

These are not scenes from some Hollywood movie about a dystopian future. This is happening NOW. This is not an isolated situation either. This is a portent of what the future will be like for all us in cities all around the world. We don’t have enough water to keep pace with the population. And we’re choking the water reservoirs we do have. And we’re trying our damnedest to ensure rains get hampered by destroying the environment.

We can still change this ominous future. But institutional, governmental, corporate initiatives alone won’t help. At an individual level, each one of us needs to take measures to ensure our future is saved for a little longer. And these are not hard things to do. Take baby steps.

Avoid bottled water. Avoid plastic bottles for sure. Please sanitise your plastic usage. Don’t ask for your groceries to be wrapped in plastic bags. Save water in the shower. In fact, don’t shower. Use buckets to bathe in. Please petition the government to avoid wilful destruction of environmental resources. And remember, trees are our friends.

We have all read these actions somewhere before and passed over them. Maybe as insignificant. Maybe as inconvenient. But these are small steps we can all take at our individual levels which will have a massive environmental impact for which your future generations will thank you. Change begins with you. And today. This can’t wait for tomorrow. Or for someone else.