City calls for tightening of water consumption
THE City says consumption must be brought down to 500 million litres of water a day to help Cape Town get through as much of the summer as possible before winter 2018.
This comes as dam storage levels stood at 34.2% with usable water at 24.2%. According the City, collective consumption was at 599 million litres of water a day. This is 99 million litres above the target of 500 million litres.
“We must introduce supply augmentation schemes,” said Mayco member for Water and Waste Services Xanthea Limberg. “Various processes must be finalised pertaining to the procurement.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure Cape Town survives the drought, but we must also adapt so we can thrive irrespective of a drought, as part of our New Normal approach to the unpredictability of climatic conditions.”
Limberg reminded residents to reduce water flow on their property through adjusting their private stopcocks or water control taps.
This could be done by closing the stopcock by turning it in a clockwise direction, and opening it again (about a half turn); by going to the tap furthest away from the stopcock (this could be inside the house, in the back garden/yard or in an upstairs bathroom); or by opening the cold water tap and seeing if there is sufficient water flowing, and if required, adjusting the stopcock a half turn at a time until a reasonable but reduced flow rate of water to the furthest cold water tap is achieved.
During her previous speech in a council meeting, mayor Patricia de Lille said the City would invest over R2 billion in new desalination, ground water extraction and water reuse plants, and another R1.3bn in operational costs in the next two financial years.
She said a new Water Resilience Advisory Committee, with experts from academia, the business sector, and NGOs, was established to advise the mayor and City on water resilience.
The City has done R13.6bn worth of business with BBBEE-compliant vendors in the past financial year – that’s 92.% of the City’s purchase orders, according to De Lille.
Residents can e-mail water@ capetown.gov.za for queries about water pressure reduction, or to report contraventions of the water restrictions (evidence should be provided), or they can send an SMS to 31373.