Icebergs: A cool answer to a metropolis’s worst drought

South Africans have responded to my worry that the governors of Cape Town, a metropolis packed with international tourists, seem to be maintaining almost a blind eye over the region’s appalling drought.

Advertisements and public notices tell the public to reduce water usage, to flush toilets only rarely, to shower for no longer than 90 seconds, and to use the same washing up water for several meals.

The council has issued warnings when Capetonians use more that the authorised limit of an average of 611 million litres per day. However, with daily temperatures often over 30 degrees Celsius, consumption has been rising to 628 million litres.

It is reported that only 37% of residents use less than a requested 87 litres per person per day.

Desperate need

It’s all very well requesting people to use less water, but the usually reliable heavy rain of winter remains a very long way off.

An alternative source of water is desperately needed.

A scientific article in sciencedirect dot com reports that the utilization of solar earth-water stills for desalination of groundwater is highly complicated.

I would add especially so when the Cape could hardly have greater access to sea water.

It seems logical that desalination is the obvious alternative for Cape Town, especially now that the major processing problem of desalinating has been overcome. And the free water is right here, a stone’s throw away, cooling so many of the present flood of tourists.

The South Atlantic, which leads to my old haunt, the Southern Ocean, sweeps past, right up against this beautiful city.

And the Southern Ocean has more than saline to offer, as Wikipedia reports ‘... icebergs that form each year in the Southern Ocean hold enough fresh water to meet the needs of every person on Earth for several months.’ Continues on the blogs for my sailing adventure story, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com