The city cut down tens of thousands of trees to save water

South Africa The city of Cape Town cuts down non-native trees because they consume so much water, about 55 billion liters a year.

Non-native plants use as much water as the city consumes in 2-3 months. Photo: BBC

Cutting down trees to save the city from drought sounds like an impossible plan, but this is exactly what Cape Town, South Africa, is doing. This comes not long after Cape Town became the first global city (city of great importance in the world economic system) to almost run out of water.

Three years ago, Cape Town approached the threshold of Day Zero - the moment when 4 million residents of this place ran out of water. The crisis stemmed from a severe and unexpected drought that turned the entire local reservoir into a sandpit.

Today, dozens of teams armed with saws are protecting these reservoirs with an unusual method - cutting down tens of thousands of trees that grow in the surrounding mountains. This is an ambitious and counterintuitive effort to limit the effects of climate change.

"Pin is not native to this area. They use too much water - significantly more than native plants. We need to fix this green infrastructure," said Nkosinathi Nama, coordinator at the group. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), representing the Greater Cape Town Water Fund, explained to the BBC on November 10.

Pine was originally brought to serve the timber industry. They quickly spread over the mountains, crowding out the local flora, which is hardy and requires much less water. Pines and other exotic plants, such as eucalyptus, are consuming about 55 billion liters of water a year, equivalent to the city's two to three months' water consumption.

"One of the lessons from Day Zero is that watersheds need to be rehabilitated and restored to be sustainable," Nama said.

Theewaterskloof Dam, the main source of drinking water for Cape Town, dried up in 2018. Photo: AFP

The project is just one of many ways Cape Town is responding to the water crisis in 2018. In addition to protecting and diversifying the city's water resources, it includes tapping underground aquifers and building a reduction plant. salt for water, experts are also studying human responses to the Day Zero threat.

"We underestimated people's ability to adapt to the crisis," said Dr Kevin Winter, an environmental expert at the University of Cape Town.

He points out that the city's water consumption nearly halved in just three weeks in early 2018, from about 780 million liters per day to less than 550 million liters, and then fell even lower. It was a spectacular result from the consensus of the people.

"People were really scared and it worked," Winter said.

In the following years, water consumption in Cape Town increased again. Perhaps this is inevitable. However, consumption is still much lower than it was at its peak - 1.2 billion liters of water per day in 2014. Experience having to save water or face fines or other penalties obviously already leaves a lasting impression on many families.

Another lesson is that the role of agriculture in water management is more appreciated. In South Africa, as in many other parts of the world, about 70% of water reserves are used to irrigate agricultural land. Around Cape Town, farmers agreed to stop using the city's water completely for several months.

The Zero Day crisis also highlights the increasingly unpredictable nature of weather in an age of climate change. At the end of 2018, Cape Town received more rain than average, but not during the usual rainy seasons.