Cape Town – Average dam levels in the province continue to increase as colder, wetter weather sets in. But water use in Cape Town has also increased, the City said yesterday.
Cape Town’s collective water consumption for the past week increased by 28 million litres to 583 million litres a day, and the City has reminded residents that water restrictions remain in place, even though dam levels are slowly recovering.
Rains this past week have seen dam levels recover to 61.8%, however, the City said water savings efforts could not be relaxed.
“The City would like to thank all water warriors who constantly strive to reduce their consumption and save this precious resource.
“Although consumption has increased, we are within the daily allocation of 650-million litres a day,” the City said.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said the Gouritz River catchment continued to be the area of most concern.
“This is the area feeding large parts of the Karoo. While some regions, including Beaufort-West, have received good rains in their catchment areas, other areas have not yet seen the relief they need.
“A source of concern remains the agriculture sector in large parts of the province, where the ongoing drought that has been prevalent for more than four years remains in effect,” Bredell said.
The department continued to monitor the situation and interventions seeking to address longer term water sustainability remained on track, he added.
“These include searching for a new water source for Beaufort-
West, and rolling out the Blossoms project for Oudtshoorn and other areas of the Karoo, including Kannaland.
“The resource will always be under pressure and we must all do that we can to use less.
“We’re talking about permanent behaviour change to ensure we
build a more sustainable future
for generations to come,” Bredell said.
Visit www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater for all water-related information.
Major dams15/7/2019Previous week% 2018Berg River90.389.584.2Steenbras Lower55.253.255.9Steenbras Upper94.880.896.8Theewaterskloof51.650.440.4Voëlvlei66.664.054.6Wemmershoek53.951.485.0Total Stored Ml554 831536 948492 607% Storage61.859.854.8