Good news. Day Zero has once again been pushed back. Day Zero, the day we may have to start queueing for water, has now moved to 9 July due to a weekly drop in dam levels of only 0.5% , setting us now 139 days away.
The pushing back of the date was largely due to a lower drop in water levels in the city’s supply dams, as well as a reduction in average daily collective consumption to 523 million litres.
“The Groenland water transfer and the reduction in our weekly average demand has had a dramatic impact on the Day Zero date, which is determined by assuming that the fortnightly trend of weekly dam storage change will continue unchanged,” the City’s Executive Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson said.
Neilson said this precautionary outlook assumes no further rainfall and that water demand may not reduce over the next few months.
“We anticipate that Day Zero could move back into June again once the Groenland transfer has been completed, unless we are able to meet the 450 MLD (million litres per day) collective water usage target. Therefore it is imperative that we reach this target to make it through to the winter rains.”
Cape Town residents are urged not to ease up on water saving efforts.
“The only way we can stretch our water supplies is to adhere to the 50 litres per person per day water allocation. Our water saving efforts across the metro have thus far been our greatest defence against Day Zero. Now is definitely not the time to ease up.”
Update:
- Dam Levels: 24,4% (decline of 0,5%)
- Total consumption: 523 million litres per day (73 million litres above the target of 450 million litres per day)
Level 6B restrictions make it compulsory for residents to use no more than 50 litres per person per day.
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