Water curbs tightened in Breede-Gouritz district

Persistently high usage in two water-management systems in the drought-stricken Western Cape has resulted in Department of Water and Sanitation acting director-general Lindiwe Lusenga placing further restrictions on water use.

Lusenga’s authorisation was published in the government gazette and comes as “day zero ” draws closer in Cape Town, which would make the metro the first major city in the world in modern history to exhaust its tap water resources.

The Breede-Gouritz water management area, which services four district municipalities and 19 local municipalities, has been affected by the Water and Sanitation Department’s move. Lusenga wrote in the gazette that the latest notice was supplementary to a previous gazette published in December.

The December gazette entry stated that Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane could limit water use in an area in which she believed that a water shortage existed.

“Taking water from groundwater resources for domestic and industrial water use is curtailed by 45% in the BergOlifants and Breede-Gouritz water management areas.

“Taking water from groundwater resources for agricultural water use is curtailed by 60% in the Berg-Olifants and BreedeGouritz water management areas,” wrote Lusenga.

She cited insufficient rainfall in 2017 and low rainfall forecasts for the months ahead, as well as high water demand, for instituting the restriction.

“I have decided that it is reasonable and justifiable in the circumstances to depart from the requirements … [and] instituted this limitation without allowing the water users affected and other roleplayers to comment on the matter before ... [instituting] the limitation,” she said.

Water and sanitation spokesman Sputnik Ratau said the decision to curtail water consumption had not been taken lightly. “We have to respond to the situation at hand and implore the people of the Western Cape to make further efforts to reduce the amount of water used.”

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s spokesman Michael Mpofu said the decision and its subsequent gazetting gave greater operational control to the provincial water authority to address the drought challenge.