South Africa’s City of Cape Town is set to relax water restriction to level 4 or 3 following an increase in water levels in the dam.
City of Cape Town Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson confirmed the reports and said he believes the dam levels were sufficiently high now to reduce water restrictions. He however pointed out that the move cannot be made until the national Department of Water and Sanitation decides how much bulk water supply Cape Town will be allocated for the next hydrological year.
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Water consumption
After the meeting with the water and sanitation department, the municipalities will then specify the water consumption into specific restriction. Ian Neilson, Cape Town’s Deputy Mayor said that the municipality will have to take into consideration the fact that the dams are now almost three quarters full.He adds that the cuts should be reduced from its current 45% to between 40% and 20%
In 2017, Cape Town had to cut off their water consumption by 45% while the agriculture had to cut their water use by 60%. This was caused by a three year drought that reduced the dam levels. On October, upon recovery that the dam levels have improved, the restriction moved from the previous level 6 to level 5.
When the restrictions were eased, Cape Town saw an instant increase on water consumption from its 450 to 500 million litre target to a 593 million litres. The restrictions moved from the 50 litre per person to 70 litre per person. The commercial and industrial water use moved from a 45% to 40%.
Earlier in the year, the government announced “day zero” for Capetonians where the dam levels would be low to a point that the government would have to turn off the taps and send people to communal water collection points.
