Cape Town came terrifyingly close to running dry, but 10 years on, is the city ready for the next climate-driven drought?

This year marks 10 years since Cape Town endured a severe drought, a three-year period (2015-2017) that took the city of around 4.6 million residents to the brink of Day Zero - a point when Cape Town narrowly escaped running out of municipal water.

The drought, a once-in-590-year event, dramatically transformed daily life in Cape Town. Residents became acutely aware of every drop, adopting military-style showers, where taps were turned off while soaping, and water collected in buckets for later use, often for flushing toilets.

Queues formed at natural springs as people sought water beyond the strict municipal limits. "If it's yellow, let it mellow" became a household mantra with signs still up at various bathrooms around Cape Town, and unwashed cars were seen not as a sign of neglect, but of civic pride.

The threat of Day Zero, when municipal taps would run dry, loomed large, creating a collective urgency and an ingrained shift in water behaviour.

This behavioural change, water restrictions, tariffs and a targeted information campaign led to a reduction in water consumption by half, which...