It is feared than in a few months’ time Cape Town could run out of water. The city is planning for so-called Day Zero when the supply is switched off and people will have to collect water rations. Cape Town is an extreme example of what is now a global phenomenon of water scarcity. We investigate how the city got so close to the brink, and whether there’s anything that other cities around the world can do to avoid a similar fate.

(image: A man collects drinking water from taps that are fed by a spring in Newlands,Cape Town at the foot of Table Mountain. Photo credit: Rodger Bosch/Getty Images.)