Cape Town – Due to stricter water restriction measures in Cape Town, the operating times of public swimming pools have been changed "for the remainder of the summer season", the City of Cape Town said on Wednesday.
With the exception of Sea Point, the Mnandi Resort pool, and four other indoor facilities in Long Street, Retreat, Blue Downs and Strand, all public swimming pools will be closed from Monday to Thursday. This will start from Monday 13 February.
The swimming pools will only be open to the public from 14:00 until 17:00 on Fridays and from 10:00 – 17:00 on Saturdays and Sundays until the end of March when pools will close for the winter season.
Public swimming pools will be open on weekends in Athlone, Atlantis, Belville, Bonteheuwel, Brown's Farm, Delft, Eastridge, Elsies River, Enthonjeni, Goodwood, Hanover Park, Kensington, Khayelitsha, Langa, Lentegeur, Manenberg, Monwabisi, Morning Star, Muizenberg, Observatory, Parow North, Parow Valley, Ravensmead, Ruyterwacht, Vulindlela, and Wynberg. The Newlands, Westridge and Trafalgar swimming pools will, however, be closed for the entire summer season due to repairs and upgrades.
The City said public swimming pools needed to be backwashed every day in order to maintain optimum water quality levels.
The City's Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security and Social Services, JP Smith, said: "According to previous swimming pool user logs, attendance during weekdays averaged at around 75 people per day during February and March 2016 and around 150 people per day on weekends."
"This shows that the swimming pools are used 50% more over weekends, compared with weekdays during February and March. With the low usage levels during the week, it is impractical to keep these pools open while facing the current water crisis in Cape Town," he said.
At the beginning of this week, dam levels in the province had dropped to 37,5% and the City said that because the swimming pools needed to be backwashed every day in order to maintain optimum water quality levels, it was estimated that more than 1,680 kl of water per day would be saved just by eliminating the daily backwash of these pools.
The swimming pools will only be open to the public from 14:00 until 17:00 on Fridays and from 10:00 – 17:00 on Saturdays and Sundays until the end of March when pools will close for the winter season.
With pools only staying open on weekends, only one backwash per week would be needed, while showers at pools would also be switched off and splashing in pools would also be monitored and restricted.
The City added that only normal bathing costumes may be worn when swimming at public swimming pools as significant water could be wasted just by swimming in casual clothing.
"The situation is not ideal, but I trust the public can appreciate the severity of the situation and will support this measure, over and above their individual water-saving efforts. We need to look at the bigger picture and, frankly, a short-term sacrifice like this is a small price to pay if we consider the impact it will have on our longer-term water supply and needs," Smith added.