The City of Cape Town officials are concerned over the excessive use of water and dropping dam levels and suggest this could be an indication of an early drought.
Also read: Residents’ water consumption is climbing to pre-drought levels
While there is no immediate cause for concern about water security, the officials continue to urge people to use water wisely.
The target set of 850 million litres a day to conserve water sources and keep them fuller for longer will not be able to keep up with residents’ current consumption of 1 billion litres a day.
Siseko Mbandezi, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitisation, raised his concern over the recent water usage. “During winter 2022, the average daily usage was about 800 MLD. This compared to summer where usage has reached more than 1 billion litres on some days over this past week.”
While the City will play its part through programmes such as pipeline leak detection, annual pipe replacement, and pressure management “drought cycles will become more frequent as the effects of climate change become more intense and we suspect that there will be approximately 25% less water available in the Western Cape Water Supply System over the next 30 years,” said Mbandezi.
According to IOL, “MEC of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Anton Bredell called on all Western Cape municipalities to evaluate their water security and consider the implementation of water restrictions.”
Bredell’s call is a result of the latest weekly report today, which indicated an average level of 49.7% for Western Cape dams and 56.4% for the dams providing water to Cape Town.
“My Department of Local Government will be interacting with each municipality in the province to assess and evaluate their water security situation. Where necessary, we will recommend that water restrictions are implemented sooner, while there are still options available,” said Bredell.
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Picture: City of Cape Town