Day Zero draws closer

THERE are 95 days left before we reach Day Zero.

This was the reminder by Mayor Patricia de Lille yesterday, who appealed to the public to do more to save water.

Day Zero has moved a day closer this week to April 21. This day will come when dam levels reach 13.5% and the City will be forced to turn off most taps. At this stage, residents will have to collect water daily from around 200 collection sites across the city.

“During the past week only 39% of Cape Town’s residents used less than 87 litres of water per person per day, compared to 54% during the first week of January,” De Lille said.

Average daily collective consumption has increased to 618 million litres per day, up from 578 million litres.

Dam levels have fallen to 28.7% this past week – down by 1%. About 18.7% of this water is usable as the last 10% is difficult to abstract from the dams.

“The City continues its work around the clock to bring additional water sources into our supply network. These projects include groundwater abstraction from the three aquifers around Cape Town, the three desalination plants at Monwabisi, Strandfontein and the V&A Waterfront, and the recycling of waste water,” De Lille said.

According to the City’s water dashboard, all seven major water augmentation projects, except one – the Waterfront desalination plant – are behind schedule. All projects are around 57% complete.

The City has also ramped up pressure management to drive down consumption – to stretch the water supply past the winter rainy season.

The dashboard can be found at http://www.capetown.gov.za/dayzerodashboard