Cape Town put on flood alert for Thursday

With up to 29mm of rain expected in Cape Town on Thursday‚ the South African Weather Service has issued a flood alert.

City of Cape Town disaster risk management spokeswoman Charlotte Powell said the weather service had warned of a possibility of flash floods in urban areas of the metropole and the Overberg.

“Heavy downpours are expected to be more intense during the course of late morning into the afternoon‚” she said.

“The impact of these heavy downpours could lead to localised flooding of informal settlements‚ roads and low-lying areas and bridges. Minor motor vehicle accidents due to slippery roads and localised mudslides and rockfalls could occur.

“City services will be on standby to deal with these adverse weather conditions and we encourage members of the public to report any incidents by dialling 107 from a landline or 021-480 7700 from a cellphone.”

Weather-forecasting websites monitored by TimesLIVE show rain estimates for Thursday ranging between 1mm and 29mm. The SA Weather Service site predicts 20mm.

Cape Town’s five main dams were 22.1% full on Wednesday‚ up 1.4 percentage points on their level at the same time in 2017.

The City of Cape Town used an average of 525 million litres of water a day last week‚ almost 17% higher than the 450 million-litre target set by the Department of Water and Sanitation.