More Cape water restrictions

19 October 2016 - 09:03 By APHIWE DEKLERK

City of Cape Town residents face stricter water restrictions. This comes as dam levels are 15% lower than they were in the same period last year. Currently dams are 61.7% full.Mayor Patricia de Lille's mayoral committee approved the new restrictions at a meeting yesterday. A final decision on the proposal will be made at a full council meeting next week.Now residents are only allowed to use buckets or watering containers to irrigate their gardens.Only buckets can be used to wash cars and boats - and portable pools are no longer permitted, among other things.In January the city applied level-two water restrictions amid a nationwide drought that hit farmers particularly hard.South Africa faces water rationing as dam levels drop after droughtSouth Africa will experience water rationing if consumers do not heed calls to cut consumption to avoid a collapse of the water system as dam levels fall after a drought, an official in the water department said on Thursday. The rainy season in Cape Town has just ended and the low dam water levels spell a mean, long dry summer for people in the city.The new restrictions will kick in on November 1.Ernest Sonnenberg, utility services mayoral committee member, said had the city continued with level-two restrictions, dam levels might have dropped by another 15% by the end of summer."If we experience poor rainfall next rainy season, we could find our dams at 50% this time next year," said Sonnenberg.Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni in Gauteng have already implemented water restrictions after a notice was issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation directing municipalities drawing water from the Vaal River to limit urban water use by 15% and irrigation by 20%...

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