The Cape Town suburbs where water rationing is happening

File picture: Itumeleng English/INLSA

File picture: Itumeleng English/INLSA

Published Oct 27, 2017

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Cape Town - Nine city suburbs have already experienced water outages, in addition to lowered water pressure, following the City’s commencement of its Phase 1 critical water shortages disaster plan.

The areas were Camps Bay, Parow, Constantia, Bishops Court, Wallacedene, Fairfield Estate, Capri Village, Platte- kloof and Woodstock.

Xanthea Limberg, Mayco member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services and Energy, said the City’s latest five-day pressure report reflects that at times during these five days there had been low pressure or no water reports associated with pressure reduction/rationing in areas across the city.

READ: City invites evaporation prevention submissions as drought intensifies

“It cannot be said that areas that experience outages are not abiding by Level 5 restrictions. People may be sticking to their daily quota but when many users draw water at once, a peak in the demand is created.

“This happens when people tend to do laundry in the morning or shower at more or less the same time during the day.

"This peak will draw down the system, creating a temporary outage. In this case the system should recover once the demand decreases,” Limberg said.

READ: City rejected plan to tackle water crisis years ago

Meanwhile, nearly 49% of businesses in Cape Town say the drought and the water crisis have now become a threat to their survival, according to a survey of members conducted by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The survey also found that the crisis had caused 23% of responding firms to postpone or halt new investments in their businesses.

In response to the question: “Do you think the city council has done enough to prepare for the water shortage?” 92.8% said no. 

At a full council meeting yesterday, mayor Patricia de Lille said there were currently four identified sites for groundwater abstraction from the Atlantis and Silwerstroom, Cape Flats, Cape Peninsula and Hottentots-Holland aquifers.

READ: We have a plan, we will supply water

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