Cape water crisis far from over

DAM LEVELS in the Western Cape have remained stable over the past week with some areas continuing to show slight increases, but Cape Town’s dam levels have decreased slightly.

MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Anton Bredell said the average level for dams in the province was 66%. “Dams feeding the City of Cape Town have increased slightly to above 75%. The greatest concern remains for the Karoo region where the average level for dams still stands at below 20%. The good news is that the region is a summer rainfall region.”

Bredell cautioned against water wastage and said it was important to note that, in 2016 at this time, the average dam levels for the province were 61%, similar to current levels.

“Our water challenges are not going to go away, instead they will potentially only increase in years to come. This is why we need to see continued progress on planned water augmentation projects from national government.” Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town said dam levels had declined slightly by 0.2% over the last week to 76% of storage capacity.

The average water consumption for the past week increased from 546million litres per day to 563 million litres per day. “Although the metro has emerged successfully from a crisis situation, consumers are reminded that the permitted usage under Level 5 restrictions is 70 litres per person per day and that the Level 5 tariffs are still on the higher end of the tariff scale.”

The Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, said: “Spring/summer seasons are the periods where we experience increase in volume of domestic water usage.

“This challenge is attributed to the rise in temperatures and less rainfall.” |