Cape Town - The Western Cape’s dam levels are sitting at 75.6% – 15% higher than they were at the same time last year. Dams providing water to the City are at 97.5%, more than 19% higher than last year.
The City said daily water consumption last week decreased to 705 million litres a day, compared to 732 million litres the week before.
As dam levels had been increasing following substantial rainfall recently, some residents are asking whether water tariffs can be lowered. The City said the amount of water in City dams, shared with other municipalities, did not directly influence the cost of delivering the overall water and sanitation service.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said the provincial dam levels were looking “very good” for this time of year. However, he said said the provincial government remained concerned about an agricultural drought in some parts of the Western Cape.
“Based on the latest bi-annual field assessment, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture has categorised the veld conditions in parts of the Central Karoo, Garden Route and northern part of the West Coast District as critical or extremely critical. This follows years of continued drought in those areas.”
Bredell also welcomed the decision by the National Disaster Management Centre to issue a National Drought Declaration for South Africa on July 20, which he said would open a way to securing further support for farmers in the drought-stricken areas.
Cape Town Weather Office forecaster Stella Nake said there are no alerts valid for today in the region, however there was a 30% of showers in the city.