Cape Town CRISIS: ‘We are facing our 9/11’ weather models DON’T WORK due to climate change

As South Africa sits on the verge of running dry, Mrs Zille emphasised that the current situation poses as great a challenge as that of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City during her appearance on BBC Newsnight.

She said: “I believe running out of water is that serious, there are four and a half million people in Cape Town. If municipal water system run dry in a city of this size it is serious and it is that serious.

“I’m not saying it’s bigger than 9/11 but I’m saying it poses as much of a challenge as a catastrophe such as 9/11 did but in a completely different way. So that is why we have all hands on deck but we have more time to prepare than they did at 9/11 and that’s what makes the difference and we have to be prepared.”

Helen Zille claimed that the region had initially been predicted to feel the impact of climate change by 2025, but the horrifying impacts arrived “ten years before that” as the country imposes strict bans on water in a desperate attempt to last until the next season of rainfall.

She explained: “My message is simply this: We have to keep our water consumption until the rains come and even after the rains have come to below 50 litres per person per day.

“This drought could never have been foreseen. The South African weather services have said to me that their models do not work anymore in an era of climate change.

“The climate change projects were to have hit us in 2025, they came ten years before that. This is very real and very challenging. We all have to pull together the experts can’t predict anything anymore and we have to make sure that we control what we can control which is our own behaviour and make sure we are ready for ‘Day Zero’ and that we are pulling together as really South African’s can do when they need to.”

Due to the extremely low rainfall in the region, dams are currently 26 per cent full – once levels reach 13.5 per cent the region will trigger an event known as “Day Zero” when the country will be forced to rely on water distribution to survive.

The Western Cape Premier declared: “We are trying to prevent ‘Day Zero’ for all we are worth, but when the dams are on average 13.5 per cent full, we will announce ‘Day Zero’, that means that the taps for much of Cape Town will be switched off and we will have to rely on the distribution and the fetching of water for people to have drinking water in their homes.

“We are not too far from 13.5 per cent now, we are at 26 per cent and we have a way to go until the winter rains come. So unless every single person cuts water consumption for all their usages out of the municipal system to under 50 litres per person per day we will hit ‘Day Zero’. We are doing everything we can to prevent it but that is the reality.”

Mrs Zille fought back against claims from presenter Emily Maitlis that some people are failing to abide by the water limit of 50 litres per person per day.

She remarked: “Yes there is a lot of anger and I can understand that absolutely, you know South African’s are very good at pulling together in a real crisis.

“But our back has got to be against the wall before we can read the writing on it. What I am saying to South African’s now, especially Capetonians is that our backs are against the wall and let’s do what we have done many times before in Cape Town and in South Africa particularly and pull ourselves out of the hole we have dug by our bootstraps.”

A Cape Town resident recently detailed that locals are “desperate” and that water has become “the new gold” in the area.

Mohammed Allie stated: “Many desperate locals, armed with plastic containers, can also be seen collecting water from mountain streams around the city.

“Water has clearly become the new gold of Cape Town, a city famous for its beaches and mountains.”

The 50 litre restriction covers drinking, washing cooking and even flushing the toilet.

Authorities and residents are desperately trying to stave off “Day Zero”, set for April 12, when the city is due to become the world’s first to run out of water.