Cape Town’s dam levels are expected to dip to about 20% in the next few months with some experts warning that the city — which consumed up to 890-million litres a day for the week ending on January 15 — has enough water stored for only the next 100 days. According to the experts‚ there will be serious short- and long-term consequence if dams reach critical levels. Here are some of them: • Poorer quality water: Prof Bob Scholes‚ an expert in climate change at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)‚ said that the quality of the water deteriorated when it reached such low levels. "Contaminants are not diluted enough in a situation like that‚" he said. "The water tends to be warmer because it is shallower‚ and that leads to pollution problems as well." • Unemployment: The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in the US says that when dam levels become dangerously low‚ farmers’ crops die as a result of the drought, which leads to farmers laying off staff to keep costs down. The d...
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