It’s official: Cape Town won’t run out of water this year, thanks to above-average rainfall in January and a reduced water consumption rate. Over the past 12 months, Capetonians’ collective water usage dropped from 900 million litres per day to just over 500 million litres in the first week of March. “The City projects that Day Zero will arrive on 27 August 2018 if there is no rainfall,” the local authorities said in a statement. “As this date falls deep within the normal rainfall period, it is no longer appropriate to project the date with no consideration of rainfall.”

However, the Fairest Cape is not out of the woods – far from. Besides inadequate rainfall – a trend that is expected to continue due to climate change – urbanisation and population growth will be the main drivers of the crisis.