DROUGHT
Icebergs a way to water the Cape
A single iceberg could provide about 130-million litres of water daily for a year
The doomsday scenario of Cape Town’s taps running dry has been averted for 2018. Its 4-million residents have slashed their water consumption and supply was cut off to farmers, but the crisis confronting the country’s second-biggest city is far from over. The city’s six main dams are now on average just 21% full, almost 2 percentage points less than they were a year ago. If winter rains disappoint and a three-year drought does not break, the threat of Day Zero will loom large again in 2019. Among the options being considered to meet the water shortfall are to build more desalination plants, recycle water, use more ground water and use Antarctic icebergs. Salvage expert Nick Sloane has proposed using tugboats and a tanker to guide an iceberg more than 1,000 nautical miles from the waters of the Antarctic to Saldanha Bay, where it could be run aground and harvested. A single iceberg could provide about 130-million litres of water daily for a year. The authorities in Cape Town have int...
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