Day Zero moved forward as City hones strategies
DAY Zero has been moved forward to April 12 after dam levels fell by 1.4% from last week, standing at 27.2%.
According to the City’s dashboard, however, the percentage of residents using 87 litres or less per day has increased to 41%, up from 39% last week.
Day Zero will come when dam levels reach 13.5%. At that stage, residents will have to collect water daily from up to 200 collection sites across the city.
Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson said the City was making every effort to delay Day Zero by rolling out aggressive pressure management operations across the city, installing thousands of water management devices on the properties of high users and ensuring that the overall water loss percentage of 16% is lowered further.
“Our desalination, aquifer and water recycling projects aimed at providing additional water are ongoing, but will not provide sufficient supply to help us avoid Day Zero this year.
“They will, however, help us to become more resilient in weathering our next dry season,” Neilson said.
The Disaster Risk Management Department has been looking at how the water collection points can be managed to ensure maximum efficiency.
This involves anticipating what strategies households and businesses will employ to meet their water needs in the event of Day Zero, and how these strategies can be supported by designing and managing these collection points in a way that makes ergonomic sense, Neilson said.
More details on this plan will be released within the coming 10 days.
Meanwhile, the Stellenbosch Municipality is moving to Level 6 water restrictions from next month.
Mayor Gesie Van Deventer said residents will be restricted to 87 litres of water per person per day.
“In June 2017, the Stellenbosch Municipal Council approved the Drought Management Plan.
“This plan made R45 million available for the sourcing of additional groundwater and purification plants for boreholes,” Van Deventer said.
“We have already sourced 8 000Ml (mega litres) water per day and have advanced planning in place for an additional 6 000Ml per day.”
Conservatively, the municipality can assure in the region of 14 000ml per day, have been drilling additional holes and expects to source a further 4 000Ml water per day before the end of next month.
“As we continue to connect the boreholes to our main water supply system, our water dependence on the City of Cape Town’s sources will decrease significantly.
“By the end of March 2018, we will take Klapmuts, Franschhoek and Dwarsrivier off the Wemmershoek system and connect it to our own system, freeing up water for the City,” she said.