Pretoria - The City of Cape Town has lowered its water consumption target from 800 million litres to 700 million litres for collective water usage per day, as dam water levels continue to decline.
As at 13 February 2017, dam levels dropped to 36.2%, which is 1.2% down from a week ago.
The City said that with the last 10% of a dam’s water not being useable, dam levels are effectively at 26.2%.
“If we are to reduce the consumption to 700 million litres of collective use per day, and at the current draw-down rate on dams, we could be looking at approximately 135 days of useable water left,” said City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille.
While the City thanks all of its great water-saving residents and businesses across the metro, de Lille said water consumption must be lowered immediately.
“Level 3b water restrictions, which limit the use of potable water for non-essential purposes, are in place. In December 2016, the target of 800 million litres per day was set and this was subject to seasonal variations which, among others, affect the evaporation rate of dams.
“These variations have caused us to lower the target now. In addition, we have struggled to meet the previous target and we will therefore need a monumental effort to reduce consumption further and to meet a target that is 100 million litres lower,” said de Lille.
The City is one of the users of the Western Cape Water Supply System. Annually the metro uses about 65% of the water taken from the system, but currently while agriculture is still irrigating, the metro accounts for 40% of the use.
Restrictions must be adhered
De Lille said the City will intensify its engagements with the National Department of Water and Sanitation.
“Restrictions must be adhered to as they were contemplated to be introduced during the design of the supply system as a component of the operating rules. In a drought situation, lowering consumption remains the most important intervention that can be made.
“The implementation of restrictions is a normal practice in water supply management and it is introduced during drought events as a means to trim the demand to the available supply. In a system with 97% to 98% assurance of supply, which is what we have, it means that in two to three years out of a hundred, there will not be sufficient water to meet the normal demand.”
City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services; and Energy, Xanthea Limberg said that warning notices have also been issued in the rates bills of some of the metro’s highest use domestic, commercial and government department water users, in an effort to further reduce consumption.
“According to the January 2017 consumption, the highest water users are all using far above 50 000 litres of water per month, while out of the almost one million customers that the City supplies with water, most households are using an average of approximately 20 000 litres per month or less.
Limberg warned that those who will not reduce their consumption voluntarily will increasingly be forced to reduce consumption.
“The installation of water management devices would assist households, businesses and other users with more efficiently managing their water consumption and this would result in financial savings as well,” she said. – SAnews.gov.za
