Home » Drought Crisis: Cape Town Lowers Usage Target as Dam Levels Decline

Drought Crisis: Cape Town Lowers Usage Target as Dam Levels Decline

As dam levels continue to decline and unseasonably hot weather has pushed up consumption, the City of Cape Town has lowered the target for collective water use per day by 100 million litres, to 600 million litres. Dam levels are now at 23,3% (storage levels), which is 0,9% down from a week ago. With the […]

By SAPeople
25-04-17 11:20
in Eish!

As dam levels continue to decline and unseasonably hot weather has pushed up consumption, the City of Cape Town has lowered the target for collective water use per day by 100 million litres, to 600 million litres.

Dam levels are now at 23,3% (storage levels), which is 0,9% down from a week ago. With the last 10% of a dam’s water mostly not being useable, dam levels are effectively at 13,3%.

The latest consumption is 745 million litres, which is 45 million litres over the previous target of 700 million litres. The City says it notices that Capetonians “use more water as soon as it heats up, but seemingly also when there is rain”.

Stricter water restrictions could also be on the cards soon, subject to due process. For now, the City asks that residents stop using municipal water for all outside use and that those who are able to do so invest in greywater and rainwater harvesting, among others, for all non-potable uses.

Similarly, the City is currently looking at ways to create a greater culture of water harvesting in all of its operations.

“Residents must please reduce water for personal use immediately to below 100 litres per person per day. At the current consumption rate, 88 days of water remain.

‘We thank the many residents who have played a great role in supporting us, but now we all need to up our game. Those who use more will continue to be heavily penalised but we do not want more money from higher tariffs: residents must use less water,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services; and Energy, Councillor Xanthea Limberg.

The City said it continues to accelerate its emergency water schemes. The exploratory phase of a pilot project for the extraction of water from the Table Mountain Group Aquifer (TMGA) is expected to begin near the end of June 2017… which could yield approximately two million litres per day.

The City is also continuing with extensive pressure reduction programmes to reduce the flow of water at a time, as well as water losses through leakage in the pipework of the distribution system.

The regulation of supply is under way in the central, southern and eastern suburbs and within the next week it will be expanded to the northern suburbs.

Consumers should not be alarmed if they experience very low pressure or if the supply in their area drops away as it will only be temporary until the balance is achieved.

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For queries or to report contraventions of the water restrictions, email water@capetown.gov.za or SMS 31373.

www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater