Cape Town Dam Levels Rise, But Too Soon To Relax

"While this is good news... The City urges residents to continue saving water."
Mike Hutchings / Reuters

Cape Town's dam levels have increased by 6,3% to a total of 38,1% of storage capacity, Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson said on Monday.

Neilson said recent rainfall in the province over the past weeks had increased the city's dam storage to the same levels they were towards the end of winter in 2017.

However, he said it was critical that residents keep water consumption low as it was too soon to know what supply levels were needed in order to safely navigate the 2019 summer season.

"While this is good news... The City urges residents to continue saving water."

Neilson said the national government's restriction on abstractions from the dams would remain in effect.

Mike Hutchings / Reuters

"The innovation on water-saving consumption that we've seen from residents, businesses and this local government has been quite phenomenal. We ask them to keep up with this effort until the dams reach assured levels of supply," he said.

Neilson added that the City's advanced pressure management roll-out continued to have a positive effect on water usage and was now on average 70 million litres a day.

He said the City would continue rolling out advanced pressure management across the metro to ensure that consumption remained low.

"An assessment of our overall water situation will be done at the end of the winter rainfall season to determine whether restrictions can be adjusted," he said.

The new normal of enhanced water conservation would remain business as usual as the City could not predict what the rest of the winter season would bring.

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