Drought crisis: City mulls implementation of next level water restrictions
26 June 2017
The City of Cape Town is preparing for the imminent implementation of further intensified water restrictions. The envisaged Level 4b restrictions would adjust the water usage target downwards to 500 million litres of collective water use per day. This comes as dam levels remain critically low, rainfall uncertainty great, and consumption levels still too high considering the need to start building reserves for the expected tough summer ahead. Read more below:
Dam storage levels are at 24,5% today, 26 June 2017. With the last 10% of a dam’s water mostly not being useable, dam levels are effectively at 14,5%. Consumption is 630 million litres per day. This is 30 million litres above the current usage target of 600 million litres per day.
The City requests consumers to start moving towards the target of 500 million litres, irrespective of whether Level 4b restrictions have been formally implemented or not, by ensuring that all water users use less than 100 litres of water per person per day in total, whether at home, work or elsewhere. This would be in preparation for the proposed intensified restrictions. The City will also continue to target excessive users.
‘It is incredibly important that we focus on building our reserves at the moment. The danger does exist that we will start exceeding our water usage target due to the cooler conditions and the rainfall that is being experienced at times.