Cape Town – Cape Town’s local disaster declaration is valid for three months, but could be extended on a month-to-month basis, Mayor Patricia de Lille said on Monday.
The declaration came as the city’s major and feeder dams continued drying up, with combined quantities dropping to an effective low of just above 21% this week.
The city council said that at the current draw-down rate of the dams, there were about 113 days of useable water left.
De Lille said the municipality was “prepared for all eventualities”. The city would now be able to invoke emergency procurement procedures should it be required that the emergency and accelerated water resource schemes be expedited.
The Department of Water and Sanitation last week downplayed the Cape’s water situation, saying it was “a concern, not a crisis”.
Regional director Rashid Khan said it was “too early” to have the city declared a disaster area, adding “we still have time for intervention” to turn the situation around.
Environmental Affairs MEC Anton Bredell had also previously said there was “no need to panic yet”.
“We have a very competent team in the city which is managing and monitoring the situation, looking at alternatives,” Bredell said, listing desalination and the use of groundwater as two options that could be considered.
Mayoral committee member for water services Xanthea Limberg cautioned residents against using the declaration as “an excuse not to carry on reducing consumption”.
This week, water consumption dropped below the 800 million litre mark for the first time, to 783 million litres of collective use a day.
“But we have still not achieved the new collective usage target of 700 million litres a day,” Limberg said.
“There are so many great water ambassadors. Without you, we would have been in more serious trouble."
“The City is continuing its monitoring and engagement with the top 20000 consumers across residential, business, industrial and government properties to ensure that they bring their consumption down.”