Satellite images show Cape Town’s dwindling reservoir as the city rapidly runs out of water

Desdemona Despair

By Paul P. Murphy and Judson Jones
31 January 2018

(CNN) – New satellite images show just how far Cape Town’s biggest water reservoir has shrunk as the city nears the day when it completely runs out of water.

Drought, population growth, and climate change are helping fuel Cape Town’s water crisis. Officials believe taps will run dry on 12 April 2018, cutting off water access to the city’s 4 million residents.

Satellite images provided to CNN by planet.com show the Theewaterskloof Dam, Cape Town’s largest water reservoir, at dangerously low levels. It’s only 13 percent full this week — down a full percent from last week.

The dam is so massive, it holds more than 480,000 megalitres of water, or 126 billion gallons. It accounts for 53 percent of all water in the region’s dam system.

NASA satellite imagery shows the broader impact that the worst drought in a century has had on the region. [more]

Satellite images show Cape Town’s dwindling reservoir as the city slowly runs out of water