Residents have managed to bring down their water usage to 522-million litres per day over the past week. This is 43-million litres less than the previous week’s consumption.
Th City, however, still requires that Capetonians reduce their collective usage to 450-million litres per day, or 50 litres per person.
“We need to achieve this target in order to stretch the available water supplies through the rest of the year,” said Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson.
“The more water we use, the faster our dam levels decline. In the past week, dam levels have fallen by 0.5% to 22.2%, despite the rain that was received, primarily on March 24.”
The City is still planning to implement several water-saving measures, as it is difficult to estimate how much rainfall the City will receive in the coming winter.
According to Neilson, water management devices continue to be installed across the city to the connections of high water consumers. Repair teams are also working around the clock to repair and detect leaks.
“Level 6B water restrictions remain in place, and consumers are receiving bills based on Level 6 tariffs. This means that the more water that residents use, the more they will pay,” Neilson said.
The City has also been expanding its pressure testing rollout, with the purpose of implementing more automated pressure zones across the metro area. This will help reduce water usage to just 50l per person per day.
This technology will reduce the pressure of the flow of water and will help to reduce water usage.
Testing is taking place across the metro and recently-tested areas include the Cape Town CBD, Green Point, Paarden Eiland, Woodstock, Salt River, Epping, Delft, Brooklyn and Dunoon.
Major dams |
Storage |
|
Ml (Megalitres) |
% |
|
Capacity when full |
March 27, 2018 |
|
Berg River |
130 010 |
46.0 |
Steenbras Lower |
33 517 |
38.1 |
Steenbras Upper |
31 767 |
82.0 |
Theewaterskloof |
480 188 |
10.6 |
Voƫlvlei |
164 095 |
14.5 |
Wemmershoek |
58 644 |
43.8 |
Total Stored Ml |
898 221 |
199 095 |
% Storage |
22.2 |
These are the current dam levels as of 27/03/2018.
Picture: Pixabay