A long, long time ago, there were many fish in the ocean and there were 1233.91 quintillion litres of water on earth, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Murray Swart.
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Slowly, we evolved. Primates became more upright and uptight. As we gradually made the move from sea to soil, many things changed, yet some things remained consistent.
For one, as it was in the beginning, is now and forever more shall be, there are 1233.91 quintillion litres of H20 on earth.
Water is odourless, shapeless and colourless. It can seamlessly morph from solid to liquid to gas.
It can appear from nowhere yet is very often nowhere to be found. It travels from place to place but cannot be created or destroyed, no matter how hard we try.
Today, there are still 1233.91 quintillion litres of water to share, but it isn’t enough.
About 97 percent is salty. Another two percent is fresh but frozen. That leaves us with a tad over 12 quintillion litres between us.
Don’t let the 20-digit numbers fool you. That isn’t much. It was enough to sustain generations past, but we’ve been multiplying at an exponential rate.
There is more than enough water, but unfortunately, there are too many people… parasites only too willing to contaminate for convenience when they should be conserving.
We jokingly drink beer to save water, never considering that a single pint of lager requires up to 74 litres of water to produce.
While coffee can cause dehydration, it’s ironic that, from plantation to percolator, your morning cup of java can need as much as 130 litres of water just to help kickstart your day.
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Even the shirt on your back mopped up thousands of litres before finding its way into your wardrobe.
However, it is our eating habits that are likely to leave us parched, as a single quarter-pounder soaks up as much as 1650 litres of water.
Nearly a quarter of the global supply is used for industrial purposes, while general household use comprises only 8 percent.
The other two-thirds goes towards agriculture and producing foods for a growing and increasingly picky population with impractical preferences.
On Monday, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis urged residents to reduce water consumption as the City aims to see daily usage slashed to 850 million litres.
Cape Town experienced below-average rainfall during the 2022 hydrological year, and dam levels are now at 62 percent.
This is almost 25 percent lower than they were at this time last year.
Besides the risk of another below-average winter rainfall season ahead, sustained high stages of loadshedding can also disrupt drinking water production and reticulation, which may affect high-lying residential properties in particular. Let’s be water-wise and work together to use less water now.
“Capetonians have always stood together and I’m asking Team Cape Town to stand again as one as we collectively aim to use less than 850 million litres daily,” the mayor said. “Staying within this target will help us maintain supply during sustained high stages of loadshedding, and put us in a better position next summer if we again have below average winter rainfall.”
“The dams supplying Cape Town are losing, on average, about 2 percent of our total dam capacity per week.”
“This past week we have used 949 million litres daily. This is 99 million litres daily over the collective use target. Cape Town’s dams are still above 50 percent, but our models show that dam levels will drop below 50 percent by the end of summer if we don’t meet this proactive water savings target. This may increase the need for water restrictions down the line, which we would ideally want to avoid.”
Goldman Sachs considers water to be “the petroleum of the 21st century” with the cost of everything hinging on its availability.
It’s a precious resource that needs to be valued accordingly.
If we don’t, we die. It’s that simple.
Yet, even then, there will still be 1233.91 quintillion litres of water on earth.
For more information visit: www.capetown.gov.za/savewater
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Picture: Cape {town} Etc Library