Day Zero

Day Zero.

The first major city on earth where the dams ran dry. The taps were turned off. The rains didn't fall for a third year in a row. A city of four and a half million people stranded with virtually no water. Hospitals and infrastructure had the bare minimum. Available drinking water was in the hands of armed security, stationed at various points around the city. At least one hundred and fifty of these sites were guarded by police, military and private security.

Less than half an average American's daily shower usage was permitted per person. How could people ration such quantities when clothes must be washed, children must be bathed, food must be cooked and homes cleaned? Ironic, a city situated on a coastline of all places, has no water. How can this come to be?

Was it negligence? Corruption? Lack of initiative and will? Perhaps a combination of all three.

"I'm thirsty mamma," the little boy said to his mother.

"I know baby, I am too. We just need to wait a little longer in this line," the mother replied.

"Who took our water away mommy?" the little boy cried.

"I don't know sweetie, I don't think people are to blame," the mother said.

"Why isn't the government helping us?" asked the boy.

The mother, shifting the container she is carrying from one hip to the other said, "They are baby. They have brought us the water we are waiting in line for."

Reaching up to grab his mommy's hand, the sun glaring into the little boys eyes, making him temporarily blinded, he then asked his mother, "can't the government fix it mommy?"

"I hope so sweetie, lets pray that they do," she replied.

"Is god angry at us?" the boy inquired.

"Why do you ask that baby?" replied the mom.

"Because, everybody has to wait in line for water. The rains stopped coming. But we live next to the ocean, can't we get water from there?" the boy asked, stepping forward with his mother in the queue of people.

"No baby. There is salt in the water. You can not drink it," she said.

"Can we take the salt out?" the inquisitive boy asked.

"I don't know how sweetie," replied the mother.

"Does the government know how mommy?" he said.

"I am sure they do baby." she said.

"Then why don't they do it?" the boy, seeming advanced for his years, inquired to his mother.

"Shh, you ask too many questions," replied the mother, hushing her little son.

She stood, thinking about these questions her little son of five was asking her. The sun beating down on the idly standing train of people, waiting in line at one of the collection points.

Why couldn't the government take the salt out of the sea water? Surely, it had to be possible.

As it so turned out, there was a technology readily available to help mitigate the crisis, unbeknownst to the mother and child at the time. It was called - Desalinization. It required big facilities be built along the coast, feeding this purified water into the water supply of the city.

Why hadn't this happened yet? As it so turned out, one must return to the question, "Was it negligence? Corruption? Lack of initiative and will?". It seemed as though it was a resounding yes to all three. Negligence was found in the electrical infrastructure as power lines and stations were not being maintained correctly, secured against criminal elements or upgraded. This negligence resulted from heinous corrupt national government officials that bled the electrical utility company that had a monopoly on the electrical generation of the country dry, bled it of the brains needed to run it and the finance needed to sustain it and secure it.

Had the Desalinization plants been built, there wouldn't be enough energy to power them, this from a local phenomena known as 'Load-Shedding'. A lack of initiative and will was not to be found in the local and provincial government authorities, as their hands were tied in financing the needed preventative measures. Known as the opposition party in the parliament of the country.

No, this lack of initiative and will was solely to be laid at the door of the national government. The ruling party saw it a fit strategy to let the city run dry, without releasing the requested finance to help mitigate the crisis. This tactic was chosen in the hopes that it would anger the electorate against the opposition party. What it ultimately boiled down to, was a political game to be played with peoples lives.

Was this to be a glimpse into the future? Where corrupt governments held the lives of their people to ransom? A future where a state had been captured by a corrupt mafia syndicate, ruling through the use of controlled water availability. This was so very nearly a reality for The Mother City of Cape Town, South Africa. It resembled a battle of good and evil, David and goliath, light and darkness.

Day Zero. Where there would be no water for the little boy and his mother. For the thousands of people standing in lines to get their water, and millions of inhabitants lives were at stake. Simply in the name of political gain during an unprecedented three year drought.

"Mommy, what are those men doing?" the boy asked his mother as he saw a group of men approach somebody carrying their water ration away.

Covering her child's eyes, the mother said, "don't worry sweetie, they are just taking him away."

"Why mommy?" asked the boy, trembling.

"I don't know darling, but we can't think about that now, okay?" the mother said to her scared child, herself trembling as she watched the men pull out a gun, jam it into the side of the man and take him away.

"Just remember what I taught you when you get scared baby," she said.

"One fish, two fish, three fish, I have a school," the little boy said, almost stuttering.

"Keep going baby," she said as she saw the men take the water ration away from the man, slapping him across the face with the butt of the pistol they had.

"Four fish, five fish, six fish, I have a small group in my school of fish," the boy continued...