World

What living on 50 L of water a day looks like

The residents of Cape Town have been asked to reduce their daily water consumption to 50 litres a day as a way of alleviating the impact of three years of unprecedented drought that have hit the South African city, depleting its rain-fed reservoirs. We look at what exactly you can do with that amount in a day and how North American water use compares.
A boy in Cape Town fills a water jug from a communal spring. Springs in and around Cape Town have been increasingly crowded in recent months as people stock up on water while they try to reduce consumption at home and keep use down to the city's recommended 50 litre per person per day limit.

This story is part of our series Water at Risk, which looks at Cape Town's drought and some potential risks to the water supply facing parts of Canada and the Middle East. Read more stories in the series.

The residents of Cape Town have been asked to reduce their daily water consumption to 50 litres a day as a way of alleviating the impact of three years of unprecedented drought that have hit the South African city, depleting its rain-fed reservoirs. We look at what exactly you can do with that amount in a day and how North American water use compares.

A pamphlet put out by the City of Cape Town informing people of roughly how much water should be used for daily tasks to stay within the 50 litre per person per day recommended limit. (City of Cape Town)
(CBC)

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