20 000 water wasters targets of new clampdown

SOME households in Cape Town are consuming a staggering 50 000 litres of water a day, municipal figures show.

But the days are numbered for the city’s biggest water wasters – identified as “households in formal residential areas”.

The top 20 000 users have been identified and the “water police” are preparing to knock on their doors soon.

The planned tougher new enforcement of bylaws was announced yesterday as dam levels dipped to about 40% of capacity.

A final decision of the action will be taken by the city council on Thursday.

“These users have been identified following an examination of the water-metering data of the city’s almost one million water customers‚” mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg said.

“We will be able to start communicating with these high users imminently and advise them of punitive measures that might be taken,” she said.

These could include fines or the implementation of water restriction devices if a 20% reduction in their usage was not achieved.

“The vast majority of these high users are households in formal residential areas‚ and they have been identified as consuming 50 kilolitres per day,” Limberg said.

“Prior to the water restrictions coming into effect‚ the average use per household used to be well under 1 000 litres per day or approximately 30 kilolitres per month.

“This gives an idea of the severity of the use of water among these high users‚” she said.

Measures to enforce the new rules would include door-to-door visits and issuing spot fines.

The initial focus would be on education and awareness with the involvement of peace officers‚ law enforcement officers‚ councillors and area-based mayoral committee members.

“We will continue to do everything in our power to educate and to clamp down on water wasters‚” Limberg said.