Is Nairobi destined to share Cape Town’s fate?

Illegal channeling of water at a cross-section of a dam. [Photo by Mercy Kahenda/Standard]

Cape Town’s apocalyptic countdown to ‘Day Zero’ has caught global imagination. Climate change believers and non-believers alike are all aghast that a progressive city of about 3.7 million people, sitting at the foot of the windward side of the Table Mountains, could run out of water in two months’ time.

South Africa’s second largest city is on the brink of a catastrophic water shortage that will severely affect not only its people, but also their livelihoods. Already, water rationing has begun in earnest as officials seek to cut down consumption of water.