Cape Town - "Day Zero" - the day Cape Town's taps run dry as a result of the crippling drought - will arrive later than expected, and it's all thanks to the collective water savings efforts of residents in the Mother City and its surrounds.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille made the anouncement on Thursday. She said the City's augmentation schemes had also helped push back the date of the dreaded Day Zero, which was expected to arrive in March next year.
Day Zero has now been pushed back to May 13, 2018.
BREAKING: #WaterCrisis Day Zero pushed back to May due to water savings
— Cape Argus (@TheCapeArgus) November 16, 2017
"I would like to thank the people of Cape Town. Because you have saved so much water we are able to avoid Day Zero. We still need to ask everyone to save as much water as they can," De Lille said.
Your hard work is paying off. But please continue to save EVERY SINGLE DROP you can! Only by doing this can we keep pushing it back. #SaveWater https://t.co/QCJeWYxGZG
— Wesgro (@Wesgro) November 16, 2017
A low pressure trough passing over the country brought heavy rains, flooding and even snow to some parts of the Western Cape on Tuesday night into Thursday morning.
Also read: Still more snow on the cards for SA
The news was met with optimism by some, while other urged further water savings.
We are believing in a miracle... #watercrisis
— Laurent Belgicain (@ilbelgicain) November 16, 2017
this is not an excuse to go bos please keep saving water https://t.co/ewJ1Ombzwh
— Lance Witten (@LanceTheWitten) November 16, 2017