CAPE TOWN, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille has described the scenario of the city running out of usable water as a “crisis of catastrophic proportions” and warned that water scarcity in the Mother City is now the “new normal”.

In a speech to a full Council meeting here Wednesday, De Lille said that over many decades, engineers and planners had built the water supply infrastructure in the city and in the surrounding areas which had served the city well and had previously navigated Cape Town through periods of drought.

“The drought we are currently experiencing is the most stubborn in recent history,” she said. “It is a significant shock to the fabric of our city and accentuates many other underlying stresses such as urbanization.

“Water is not to be taken for granted. To run out of usable water is to be presented with a crisis of catastrophic proportions.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK