Cape Town - Mayor Patricia de Lille told journalists on Tuesday that she wants Cape Town to be declared an emergency disaster area.
“We are in a very serious crisis,” said De Lille, adding the average dam level was at 23% on Monday.
She said some Capetonians were unfazed, despite tough water restrictions.
“Just last week we were still issuing fines to people washing their cars with potable water, people using a sprinkler to water their gardens outside of the designated times, and people using drinking water to wash down hard surfaces,” De Lille skelled.
The next step to avert dry taps would be putting treated wastewater back into the system, and to start drawing water from the Cape Flats and Table Mountain aquifers.
In the long term, the City would build a R15 billion desalination plant with Eskom, that would cost R1.2bn a year to operate, which would hike water prices up by at least 50%, she said at the civic centre on Tuesday.
She hopes national government will provide funds for short-term emergency plans.
Currently, water consumption was at 837 million litres, far above the 700 million litre target, and 20 000 water wasters were to blame for this.
“We have 121 days left of usable water in our dams,” warned De Lille.
De Lille will now ask Western Cape Environment MEC Anton Bredell for the city to be declared a disaster area, so that it can institute emergency measures.
“Please help us. We are in this together and we are going to suffer together,” she said.
She warned that if dam levels dipped below the 10% mark, water shedding would be implemented, similar to what Eskom did when it was battling to provide enough electricity.
The City was already reducing pressure from the Faure reservoir.
She said the 3B restrictions would be intensified, meaning all garden watering will be stopped, and exemptions would be withdrawn.