Cape Town – As water usage in Cape Town continues to climb to pre-drought levels, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has urged residents and businesses to unite behind the City’s water saving target of using less than 850 million litres a day.
Cape Town experienced below-average rainfall during the 2022 hydrological year, and dam levels are now at 62% of capacity – almost 25% lower than they were at this time last year.
Beside the risk of another below-average winter rainfall season ahead, sustained high stages of load shedding can disrupt drinking water production and reticulation, which may affect high-lying residential properties in particular, the City said.
“I’m asking Team Cape Town to again stand as one as we aim to collectively use less than 850 million litres daily. Staying within this target will help us maintain supply during sustained high stages of load shedding, and put us in a better position next summer if we again have below-average winter rainfall,” said Hill-Lewis.
“The dams supplying Cape Town are using, on average, about 2% of our total dam capacity per week. This past week we have used 949 million litres daily.
“Cape Town’s dams are still above 50%, but our models show that dam levels will drop below 50% by the end of summer if we don’t meet this proactive water savings target. This may increase the need for water restrictions down the line, which we would ideally want to avoid,” Hill-Lewis said.
The City says it will continue to reduce water wastage through programmes such as leak detection, annual pipe replacement and pressure management, and is bringing online the New Water Programme (to develop additional water supplies), which will see investment of about R5 billion over the next eight years.
The Table Mountain Group Aquifer delivered its first water in 2020, and the first groundwater to be injected into the supply network from the Cape Flats Aquifer is expected towards the middle of this year.
Cape Times