Day Zero
will most likely shift to Friday 11 May due to a decline in agricultural usage.
The
previous date prediction was Monday 16 April.
In a
statement, the City of Cape Town says many of the agricultural users in the
Western Cape supply system, from where the City also draws its water, have used
up the water allocated to them as per the agreement with the National
Department of Water and Sanitation.
“Agricultural
usage is therefore likely to drop significantly over the next few weeks.
Currently, the agricultural sector is drawing about 30% of the water in the
supply scheme. This should fall to approximately 15% in March and 10% in April.
It must be noted that the City does not have any control over agricultural
releases, so this is the best estimate we can make with the information at
hand.”
Despite
this bit of good news, the City still encourages residents to reduce
consumption.
“This is a
welcome decline in water usage and gives Cape Town and some of the other
municipalities hope, but importantly, we need to get our consumption down to
450 million litres per day to prevent the remaining water supplies running out
before the arrival of the winter rains. We cannot accurately predict the volume
of rainfall still to come, or when it will come.
“Last year,
we had abnormally low winter rainfall, and we cannot assume that this year will
be any different. Even if we have been given a slight reprieve at this stage,
we are likely to be facing a late and dry winter,” the statement reads.
As of
Thursday 1 February, level 6B water restrictions and tariffs are in effect to
help finance water services and reduce usage.
The new
restrictions limit residents to using no more than 50 litres of water per
person per day.
The washing
of cars with municipal water is forbidden.
