Day Zero is now very likely to come as we have reached a point of no return, warns Mayor Patricia de Lille.
De Lille said the water crisis had increased in severity, necessitating a series of new emergency measures that will include limiting the amount of water allowed per person from 87 to 50 litres per day.
The City has also advanced its planning for Day Zero with about 200 water collection sites having been assessed.
The City will announce local collection points from next week.
De Lille said 60% of Capetonians were using more than 87 litres per day.
“It is quite unbelievable that a majority of people do not seem to care We must assume that the chance of reaching Day Zero on April 21 is now very likely.”
She said those who wasted water seem to believe that Day Zero just couldn’t happen or that the City’s seven augmentation projects - set to produce around 200million litres per day - would be enough.
“While our water augmentation programme will make Cape Town more water-resilient in the future, it was never going to be enough to stop Day Zero,” she said.
The City will implement Level 6B restrictions from February 1, with the new 50-litre limit in place for 150 days.
The new collective consumption target is now 450million litres per day.
Level 6B restrictions will also limit irrigation using boreholes and well-points.
The City said it had already cut water to lower Berg River farms that had not brought their water usage down by 60%.
“If we reduce the demand enough now, we can still get our water delivered to our houses and not have to queue daily for our allocation,” De Lille said.