Cape Town - Our collective consumption over the past week was 532 million litres of water per day while dam levels have shown a further increase of 2% to 31,8%.
The City of Cape Town has encouraged all water ambassadors to continue saving and not to be tempted to relax water-saving efforts due to the cold and wet weather that Cape Town has been experiencing.
"This time last year, dam storage levels were at 21,2 %. Consumption was 615 million litres per day. We are in a better position today due to the enormous additional savings over the past summer period," said the City’s Executive Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson.
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"At this stage, we need to ensure that we adhere to the targets and restrictions that we have set. The National Department of Water and Sanitation requires Cape Town to get down to a collective usage target of 450 million litres per day."
Neilson stressed that it remains important to get as close to this goal as possible to ensure that water resources are stretched in the face of further rainfall uncertainty.
"We are keeping up the saving efforts from our side through our ongoing pressure management efforts, among others, and by driving our winter water-saving campaign to encourage our water users to continue being great winter water ambassadors."
Winter water-saving tips:
- Stick to short, stop-start showers or skip a day if you can
- In winter, water may take a bit longer to heat up. Don’t let the cold water run down the drain while you wait for it to heat up. Rather collect it in a clean container and use it for drinking or to wash dishes or laundry.
- Install flow restrictors on indoor taps to reduce the flow rate to less than 6 litres per minute. Low-flow showerheads can reduce flow to a maximum of 10 litres per minute. You can also reduce the water pressure to your property by turning your stopcock lower and/or installing a flow restrictor on the main pipe connection from your meter.
- Continue to harvest rainwater and use it to flush the toilet or to clean floors.
- Continue to switch between using waterless hand wash where possible and using water and soap.
Please visit www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater for all water-related information.
@TheCapeArgus