Day Zero moves to mid-May

DAY Zero is expected to move to mid-May due to a decline in agricultural water use.

Day Zero has been marked as May 11. Previously this date stood at April 16. Day Zero will come when dam levels reach 13.5%. At this stage, residents would have to collect water daily from up to 200 collection sites.

Dam levels currently stand at 25.5%. In calculating Day Zero, the City takes into account evaporation, agricultural releases and urban usage.

The City said the national department has now shut off supply to two irrigation boards that utilised their full allocation by the end of January. Total consumption is 547 million litres per day, 97 million litres above the daily target.

Deputy mayor Ian Neilson said many of the agricultural users in the Western Cape supply system, where the City also draws its water from, have used up the water allocated to them.

“Agricultural usage is therefore likely to drop significantly over the next weeks. Currently, the agriculture sector is drawing about 30% of the water in the supply scheme. This should fall to approximately 15% in March and 10% in April.

“This is a welcome decline in water usage and gives Cape Town and some of the other municipalities hope, but we need to get our consumption down to 450 million litres per day to prevent the remaining water supplies running out before the arrival of winter rains.”

Last year, the city had abnormally low winter rainfall and authorities are not assuming this year would be any different.

“We are likely to be facing a late and dry winter. With the hot weather predicted over the week ahead and expected high evaporation rates, coupled with an expected increase in water use by our residents as a result of the weather, we dare not rest on our laurels now.”

As of this month, Level 6b water restrictions and tariffs have come into effect to help finance water services and to reduce usage.