TECHNICAL
Limberg says, “We have reduced our consumption as a city (metro) from
1.2 million litres of collective usage per day to the current levels of just
above 500 million litres per day. This, arguably, is a feat that few metros
across the world have managed to achieve.”
While it may be tempting to dismiss events in Cape Town as a product of
overdevelopment in a developing nation, the potential of a domestic Day
Zero is high. According to Limberg, coverage of the crisis has ranged from
“informed and fair to sensational”.
“The attention, however, is starting to shift from a narrative of potentially
the ‘first city in the world to run out of water’ to the first city in the world
who came close to running out of water but did not due to the measures
that have been taken by its government and residents’,” she says.
Pete DeMarco, executive vice-president of Advocacy and Research
for the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials
(IAPMO), says that the problems facing South Africa have threatened
São Paulo in Brazil and dire drought conditions hang perennially over
Southern California.
“What strikes me,” DeMarco says, “is that when you look at South Africa
or Brazil, these aren’t third-world countries. They have a strong industrial
base, and knowledgeable governments.” He praises the work that these
governments have done to implement multi-pronged approaches that
have been effective in “getting the population to be more efficient in their
water consumption”.
DeMarco says that IAPMO has been playing a critical role in developing
codified requirements to help jurisdictions of all sizes control their water
usage responsibly. The 2010 Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code
Supplement and the Water Efficiency and Sanitation Standard (WE•Stand)
help municipalities put controls in place that combine safety