Grabouw and Elgin farmers are planning to donate water to Cape Town as the city’s worst drought in years continues.

EWN reported that the Groenland Water Users Association (GWUA), made up of fruit growers around Elgin and Grabouw, will deliver 7 to 10-million cubic metres of water to the city.

The donation will be a “once-off” thing, with the water coming from the GWUA’s private dams.

The water will be supplied to Cape Town today in hopes to help the Mother City evade Day Zero.

“We were blessed [with rain], even though it is not as much as usual,” GWUA’s chief executive Johan Groenewald told News24.

The donated water will be released into the Palmiet River today, and will make its way to the Steenbras Dam.

The City of Cape Town said yesterday they were pushing back Day Zero to mid-May, due to the agriculture industry using less water.

In a statement, the city said, “Agricultural usage is therefore likely to drop significantly over the next weeks. Currently, the agriculture sector is drawing about 30% of the water in the supply scheme. This should fall to approximately 15% in March and 10% in April. It must be noted that the City does not have any control over agricultural releases, so this is the best estimate we can make with the information at hand.”

The water crisis has affected the agriculture sector severely, Agri Western Cape announced that their water supply has been reduced between 60% and 87%.

 

 

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