Since 1 February our daily allowance has gone down to 50 litres per person a day. It will last for at least 3 - 6 months. Not too bad yet (although what most people use water for become difficult), but I fear 25 litres per person per day when the water no longer comes out of the taps.

They were handing out flyers about how to use 50 litres a day at the traffic lights, with information about Day Zero at the back. I won't be focussing on that part now, but if you're interested I can make a chapter about that too.

Just to give a little perspective: The average water use per person per day is 173 litres. That doesn't sound too bad until you start considering the large difference in usage between countries. In rural areas in Africa (referring to the whole continent here), most people use only 30-40 litres of water, and in the remotest areas as little as 4 litres per day. In many areas much of this water is collected from sources such as rivers. In comparison, the person in the USA uses 300 - 380 litres of water (80 - 100 gallons) per day. This numbers varies slightly from source to source, but all of them agree that the number is above 300 litres for domestic uses alone. Other sources have far higher estimates. Even within America the amount varies greatly by state and city.

Please don't think I'm bashing on Americans. Many people and countries (including people in Africa and in South Africa) use far more water than is sustainable. I'm just using America as an example as they have the highest water consumption rate.

I know the number in this graph is far higher than what most sources say, but it gives you a good idea of difference in consumption. If you can't see the names, from left to right, it is America, Australia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Norway, France, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Brazil, Peru, Philippines, UK, China, Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique.

By 2025, the United Nation estimates that 30% of the world's population residing in 50 countries will face water shortage. Cape Town is not alone. Prepare yourselves now.

So, 50 litres a day? What exactly does that mean?

Shower (with washing your hair); putting the water off when possible (e.g. when shampooing your hair or soaping up): 10 litres
I still wash my hair every time I shower, but that's only once or twice a week. Sorry if you have a problem with that, but you do what you have to save water.

1 litre for pets
I have two large dogs so they probably drink about a litre each a day. We give them spring water we collect though, so technically it's 0 litres as these numbers refer to municipal water.

2 litres for washing hands and brushing teeth.
This sounds about right. I only wash my hands when needed and avoid washing my hands between different tasks that require hand washing (for example, not if I'm about to go say hello to my dogs).

1 Flush: 9 litres
My family uses grey water as much as possible for this, but with less showering there is less grey water. Sometimes it's a little awkward to walk away without flushing, but I think I've broken the habit of flushing. It's getting easier.

Laundry: 1 washing machine load a week: 70 litres (10 litres a day):
If you miss the load, too bad. You'll have to wait till next week. My family's washing machine uses a little less but I'll leave it at 70 litres here as all the numbers will differ slightly.

House Cleaning (Do every second day): 5 litres
That's really not a lot of water. Again, my family uses grey water and spring water for this. This water is then used for flushing the toilet. So 0 litres for my family. It's amazing what collecting spring water or even just all your grey water can save you.

Cooking: Food prep and cooking: 1 litre
Okay. My family definitely uses more here. Again, we do use some spring water, but when you want to wash a fruit or something tap water is that much easier. We do, however, collect the water we use and use it for the dogs and for house plants.

Drinking: 3 litres
I'm pretty sure that we all drink a little less than this. We also boil spring water to drink. It's healthier than tap water anyway. The spring water we collect comes from a mountain aquifer so it's definitely safe to drink.

Dish washing (1 sink a day or 1 economy load every three days): 9 litres a day
My family does one economy load a day, but we are a family of five so we aren't going over the recommended amount. Any additional items are washed in the sink (partially using water caught while washing hands).

So, that's 50 litres of water a day. Let's hope people stick to it so that we can avoid day zero.

Also, thank you so much for number 742 in non-fiction! Remember to keep saving water!