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Cape Town prepares for 'the worst crisis any city has faced since 9/11' with water due to run out by April 12 and bath plugs confiscated to stop any waste

Bottled water is being rationed in shops in Cape Town to prevent panic-buying and hoarding as it faces 'the worst crisis any city has faced since 9/11' ahead of its taps running dry.

Stocks of buckets and bowls have also run out in hardware shops across the drought-ridden South African tourist destination as families prepare for 'day zero' - April 12 - when the city's water supplies are expected to run out.

Many supermarkets have now imposed a limit on the number of water bottles each shopper can buy to prevent long queues and fights breaking out between customers, as summer temperatures soar above 30 degrees.

The Western Cape's premier, Helen Zille, warned that 'as things stand' the challenge 'exceeds anything a major city has had to face anywhere in the world since the Second World War or 9/11'.



Bottled water is being rationed in shops in Cape Town to prevent panic-buying and hoarding as the drought-ridden city faces 'the worst crisis since 9/11' ahead of its taps running dry. People are pictured queuing to collect water in the city last week
 
The army and police are on standby to be deployed to 200 points where up to 20,000 people will have to wait for their daily ration of 25 litres (6.6. gallons) in a massive, indefinite operation that threatens to bankrupt the city and force hospitals, schools and businesses to close.
 
Day Zero is scheduled for April 12 but could be moved closer unless the city's four million people plus thousands of tourists stick to their current individual daily allowance of 50 litres from the mains supply.
 
The deadline has already been moved forward by ten days. More than half of the city's population - many of them living in wealthy, predominantly white suburbs - are continuing to flout restrictions and the threat of heavy fines in favour of having green lawns, colourful herbaceous borders and full swimming pools.
 
Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille slammed them as 'callous', adding: 'It is quite unbelievably that a majority of people do not seem to care and are sending all of us headlong towards day zero.'
 
If and when the taps do run dry, the city's residents will have to queue for rations under supervision of the army and police until it rains enough to refill the reservoirs that serve it, which may not be until June or July.
 
The crisis has been triggered following three years of low rainfall and claims of poorly managed resources.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5324817/Drought-hit-Cape-Town-braces-9-11-level-crisis.html