The City of Cape Town has announced that there will be no Day Zero in 2019, provided that adequate water restrictions are maintained. The City says the levels of dams supplying water to Cape Town have been rising consistently over the past six weeks.
It says total dam storage capacity has now risen to 43%, thanks to residents who have been saving water and the good rainfall the City has experienced so far this winter.
The City says it is confident that there will be no prospect of reaching Day Zero in 2019, provided that adequate water restrictions are maintained.
Deputy Mayor, Ian Neilson, says dam levels, which are currently at 43 percent at this early stage of winter, are already higher than they were at the end of winter last year.
Neilson says water savings from residents together with the good rainfall the City has been experiencing will enable it to safely get through summer in 2019. Neilson was speaking at a media conference at the Civic Centre in Cape Town. He says the City will also be looking at permanent desalination plants in the future to diversify water supply.
“Now that we’ve navigated our way through the immediate crisis, it is necessary that we review our water supply strategy and augmentation plans to ensure that what was devised in a period of crisis is appropriate for the longer term stability and resilience. So we are in the process of reassessing our new water programme and in particular, our future water mix and the role of permanent desalination in that supply mix.”
Neilson says the City will continue to urge residents to save water…
“We need to ensure that our focus on behavioural change and attitudes towards water and demand management does not let up. As demand for water grows, it is not only the diversification of supply that is required to address future risk, but also a sustained campaign to entrench the behaviour changes. We have seen over the past few months. Let us all therefore continue to implement these changes and keep saving water.”
Capetonians residents have reacted with joy to the news that Day Zero will now not occur in 2019. This is what some of them had to say.
“It’s great for a change to see all of the rain coming, the dams getting full. I believe they are in the 42-percent range at the moment.”
“It feels so great to experience such great weather conditions which we’ve been looking forward to for so many days.”
The City says it cannot reduce water restrictions or tariffs just yet. However, as that decision lies with National Government.
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