You know the drill by now. Cape Town has barely any water left, and the people of the Western Cape are being made to pay for adverse weather conditions, and poor governance. That is unless you win the ‘exempt from day zero’ lottery.

Remarkably, there will be residential areas in Cape Town that won’t see their taps turned off. For this lot, they won’t have to queue up for water. Although they will still be encouraged to use to 50 litres per person, per day.

Where in Cape Town will avoid day zero?

It was revealed yesterday by City Of Cape Town Mayco member Xanthea Limberg that the Cape Town CBD would remain unaffected by any potential water cuts. She also stated that large informal settlements would see no change, but that’s due to the fact many already operate with a water collection system anyway.

It is more the heart of the city that feels the benefits. The COCT confirmed that they were making exemptions to ‘keep trade and tourism going’.

Where is the Cape Town CBD?

It is the ‘Central Business District’ in the city, where you can see the high-rise buildings and the main city-centre hotels. The CBD is strictly inland, and does not stretch to Green Point or Sea Point.

Do I live in the Cape Town CBD?

Judging by the CCID 2016 State of the Central City Report, the CBD is officially highlighted in this map:

All highlighted areas are classed as CBD properties. The CBD only encompasses what is coloured in. So for example, Kloof Street at the top left is currently not classed within the boundaries of the Central Business District.

We’ve tried breaking it down another way. Because the boundaries are so finely drawn, it might make more sense to “box in” the CBD. Everything inside the blue box would count as a property automatically guaranteed to be exempt from day zero.

So if I live near the CBD, will my taps be shut off?

Perhaps not. We have been trying to gain clarity on the situation for the past 24 hours. It seems like the City of Cape Town won’t just be letting CBD properties benefit from the Mayco decision.

Richard Bosman is the Executive Director for Safety and Security in the Mother City. He told thesouthafrican.com that “key economic areas will be exempt from day zero measures”. He failed to confirm that CBD would be the only place to receive such treatment.

We contacted the city’s media team, too, who were unable to say whether the Central Business District would be the only place unshackled by day zero:

“We will be making detailed Day Zero contingency plans available soon to answer all questions that residents and businesses might have once everything is finalised.”

Will the city bowl be exempt from day zero?

So that brings in to play the likes of Kloof Street, The V&A Waterfront, Green Point Stadium, and Tamboerskloof as well as other city bowl districts. Some of these could also find themselves exempt as they are “key economic areas” too.

Is any of this fair? Not at all. It’s almost like a third-dimension has been added on to economic apartheid. They might as well call this “the water games” and have done with it.

One system residents would perhaps live with begrudgingly is ‘water-shedding’, where supply is turned off for a couple of hours a day to ease the pressure on the system. It would mirror what happened with electricity load-shedding, back in 2015.

You know a situation is grim when you’re looking to Eskom as a good example. The COCT confirmed that day zero boundaries would be confirmed at some point next week.