City says it’s too soon to relax restrictions
WITH more rain on the way, things are looking up for the city and province’s dam levels, but the City said it still too early to lower the current Level 3 water restrictions.
Cape Town’s dams are on average 72% full after some heavy downpours over the last seven days.
The latest average dam levels across the province is 56.6% (2018: 50.5%), according to the Western Cape government dam statistics.
Forecaster from Cape Town Weather Office Matshidiso Mogale said that a cold front was expected to move through the south-western parts this morning, resulting in rain over the western parts of the Western and Northern Cape.
“The amount of weather systems resulting in significant rainfall have increased compared to July 2018, and it is therefore wetter this year.”
National spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation, Sputnik Ratau, said: “This year, there has been much better rainfall compared to last year, which has had a big impact on our dam levels.
“In terms of saving water, the public have definitely been influenced in the way they treat water since 2017.”
Ratau said that the issue of water conservation remained critical.
“The rising dam levels should not cause us to become less conscious over how we use water because the dam levels are still not at an abundant level in which we would like to see,” he added.
According to the City of Cape Town, the metro’s water consumption
Still, he sees problems for young people with low-skill levels searching for jobs in the coming years. According to him, the number of jobs that do not require high levels of education or training (domestic workers, gardeners, manual labourers) has not grown as fast as the number of jobs that require higher education levels (managerial positions and technical jobs).
Crankshaw added that the demographics of employment continued to carry the legacy of apartheid. “There is an oversupply of low-skilled workers for the relatively small number of lowskilled jobs that are available. The same is true for middle-income manual jobs.
“This mismatch of skills is another important cause of unemployment among low-skilled workers who are also mostly young and black.”
Roodt had similar predictions for who would suffer the most if the economy were to further deflate.
Roodt added that many companies saw the country, with a faltering economy, large tax burden and highly organised labour unions, as a risky place.
However, he anticipated an uplifting future for Cape Town’s tech sector. Because tech businesses have a relatively low start-up cost and can operate anywhere in the world, they would be able to withstand the rocky financial climate.
While the reports remained bleak for the country as a whole, the Western Cape did stand out in a number of areas. The province has the highest life expectancy for both males and females, with an average number of 65.7 years for men and 71.1 years for women. Additionally, the fertility rate was declining at a level that was consistent with cities across the globe as families now average two children.
The province continued to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and attracted the second-highest number of migrants after Gauteng.