Cape Town – The City of Cape Town’s water inspectorate and law enforcement officers continue to perform regular water blitzes to educate residents about level 3b restrictions and water usage, the city said on Saturday.
During operations which took place in Constantia, Meadowridge, Wynberg, and Bergvliet earlier this week, city officials sought to, among others, encourage borehole users to stick to the watering days and times that apply to municipal water use, mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services, and energy Xanthea Limberg said.
"Other operations have been performed across the metro while today, 11 February 2017, inspectors are active in the Somerset West area," she said.
Officials had also been engaging borehole users on the importance of saving water. The city would lobby national government to more tightly regulate this resource as more and more residents elected to explore groundwater extraction for domestic use. Unfettered use of this resource was not sustainable.
The city encouraged the responsible use of borehole water to offset the use of potable water for non-essential purposes such as irrigation. The blitz operation, which was part of the city’s regular water enforcement operations to ensure adherence to level 3b water restrictions during this time of drought, found that many borehole users were watering their vegetation after 9am. After this time of day evaporation was generally seen to increase which made watering less effective and wasted the resource.
The City of Cape Town’s water inspectorate and law enforcement officers continue to perform regular water blitzes. Photo: CoCT
The city also checked on whether its own infrastructure was being run in accordance with the water restrictions and looked for leaks or blockages.
"Regular enforcement operations are happening on a daily basis across the city in all suburbs and within the resources that the city has available, considering that it supplies close to one million customers," Limberg said.
"Furthermore, the city is engaging with the top 20 000 high-usage domestic, commercial, and government consumers to warn them of their high consumption and to urge them to drastically reduce their consumption. It must also be noted that every suburb has high water users," she said.
This week, mayor Patricia de Lille continued calls to the commercial sector and government departments. She issued stern warnings and pleas asking them to work with the city to reduce consumption for the sake of all residents.
Soon the mayor and “shadow mayors” (area-based mayoral committee members) would personally visit a handful of the biggest water users in all sectors.
The City of Cape Town’s water blitzes aim to educate residents about level 3b restrictions and water usage. Photo: CoCT
A total of 227 fines and 385 warnings had been issued since water restrictions came into effect.
In terms of policing, contraventions could result in a spot fine of up to R5 000, escalating up to R10 000 on conviction, or possible jail time for serious and repeat offenders. Spot fines could only be issued if the resident was caught in the act. In other cases, a contravention notice, ie warning notice, would be issued.
"Cape Town is in a water-scarce region so at all times, but especially during this water crisis, we need to use water sparingly. We thank those residents and businesses who are doing their best to save water but we are still missing the usage target of 800 million litres a day, Limberg said.
Residents could contact the city via email to [email protected] for queries or to report contraventions – evidence should be provided to assist the city’s enforcement efforts – or they could send an SMS to 31373.