Water usage in Cape Town has dropped to 507-million litres a day, a notable 35-million litres lower than the previous week’s spike of 542-million litres.
The City of Cape Town’s Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson, thanked Capetonians on Monday for striving to reach the savings target – but revealed that dam levels had declined by 0,9% to 20%.
“This is the highest rate seen over the past few weeks and is due to a large release of water from the Berg River Dam via the Berg River to the Misverstand Dam by the National Department of Water and Sanitation. This was done in an effort to ensure uninterrupted water supply to West Coast municipalities, including Saldanha Bay. These municipalities abstract water from Misverstand Dam which had become critically low in recent weeks,” said Neilson.
The City has urged all water users to save more to help break through the 500-million litre barrier.
“We need to get down to the required 450-million litres of collective daily water usage, or 50 litres per person per day, to stretch the available water supplies,” he said.
It is important to note that even though it has been raining, locals must continue to use their allocated water and save, since it is still uncertain how much rain will fall this winter.
Neilson warned of more stringent water restrictions if Cape Town does not manage to bring down consumption to 450-million litres a day.
“Our consumption is being closely monitored by the National Department of Water and Sanitation who are responsible for enforcement of water abstraction restrictions from the large dams comprising the Western Cape Water Supply System – the system which also supplies Cape Town. If we are not able to bring our consumption down to the required 450 million litres a day, we could face even more stringent restrictions in the new hydrological year,” he said.
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