Driving home water warnings on freeways

THE City of Cape Town has initiated a programme to project water crisis warnings on electronic freeway signboards.

The project went live this weekend, indicating how much water the metro has left at current consumption rates.

It was an effort to strengthen the warning that saving water was a crucial measure before and during a time of drought, mayoral committee member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services, and Energy Xanthea

Truck bomb kills 35 in Somalia

MOGADISHU: A suicide truck bomb yesterday exploded at a market in the Somali capital, killing at least 35 people.

About 40 people were injured.

The bomb may have targeted another destination and exploded too early, said police. The area has no government or military buildings or other typical terrorist targets. – dpa Limberg said yesterday.

The city had now adjusted its water consumption target downwards from 800 million litres to 700 million litres for collective water use a day.

“It means that if we all use approximately 40% less water every day, compared with what we usually use during unrestricted times, about 1.2 billion litres a day, we will have 135 days left of water.

“If we save more we’ll have water for more days. Seasonal changes would also increase the number of days, such as good rainfall and lower evaporation rates of the dams as it becomes cooler,” said Limberg.

“We have not met the previous target of 800 million litres a day,” she said.

“This message on the signboards is the latest in our myriad attempts to literally drive the message home that we need to reduce consumption now.

“It’s the best contingency measure we have.” – ANA