Day Zero is off the cards for Cape Town in 2019.
Deputy mayor Ian Neilson said on Thursday that dam levels of 43.3% and continued low water consumption meant the city was in the clear for next year.
With above-average rainfall predicted until October and dams already higher than they were at the end of last winter‚ Neilson said the city council hoped to relax water restrictions “and the tariffs associated with them" in the near future.
He added: “This decision is dependent on national government relaxing restrictions on releases from the water supply system.”
The Department of Water and Sanitation has told the City of Cape Town to use no more than 450 million litres of water a day‚ but the target has not yet been met.
“Over the last few months‚ our collective water usage has been around 520 million litres a day‚” Neilson told a media briefing.
Cape Town’s latest water map shows that a record 400‚000 households used less than 10‚500 litres of water in May‚ including 217‚000 which consumed less than 6‚000 litres.
The water map‚ which labels each property with dots indicating consumption‚ is one of the initiatives the city council undertook to encourage lower water use.
Xanthea Limberg‚ the mayoral committee member for water‚ said it was encouraging that residents were still saving even though dam levels were rising.
“We thank our residents who are still painting the city green irrespective of the improved dam levels and rainfall that we have received. Importantly‚ we must try not to let our good water-saving effort go down the drain‚” she said.
“It is imperative that we carry on saving and that we continue to live the 50-litre life until the dams fill up sufficiently.”
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