Knysna gets tough love over water

LEVEL 4 water restrictions could be implemented, resulting in the closing of water valves to be opened through a roaming 3 hourbased timetable if Greater Knysna does not reduce its water consumption, according to the Knysna Municipality.

The municipality announced that it had implemented level 3 water restrictions earlier this week. This was because Greater Knysna residents were not reducing their water consumption.

The municipality’s stance comes as the City of Cape Town had taken strict measures to ensure residents used water sparingly. The Knysna Municipality said residents’ and business water usage would be “closely monitored”.

“In the past week alone, Sedgefield’s target water usage of 1.9Ml/day was exceeded with the area utilising 2.2Ml/ day. Knysna’s target of 8Ml/ day was ignored, and residents used a whopping 12.4Ml/day.

“Added to this extensive overuse, the low flow of Greater Knysna rivers that feed the Glebe and Akkerkloof Dam (which is currently 39% full) and the Sedgefield reservoirs have necessitated this level 3 water restriction,” read a statement.

Meanwhile, Cape Town’s dam levels dropped to 28.6%, which is 1.4% down from a week ago. With the last 10% of a dam’s water mostly not being usable, dam levels are effectively at about 18.6 % of usable water, with approximately 103 days of usable water left at current consumption levels.

Consumption over the past week reached 750 million litres per day of the collective usage target of 700 million litres per day. The city said the two consecutive years of drought had severely reduced stream flows into the dams of the Western Cape Water Supply Scheme.

The dams are likely to reach “extremely low” levels by the onset of winter, and are unlikely to recover satisfactorily should average-to-belowaverage rainfall be experienced over this coming winter.