Cape Town - Residents are being called on to maintain their water saving habits, with the provincial dam levels hovering at 50% and the Western Cape expected to receive another season of below-average rainfall this winter, says the SA Weather Service seasonal outlook.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell reiterated his call for Western Cape municipalities and residents to save water now and avoid drastic measures having to be implemented next year, if sufficient rainfall is not received this coming winter.
The City of Cape Town took a proactive measure in the beginning of summer to encourage residents to keep their collective water usage to less than 850 million litres per day (MLD).
This was to mitigate the effects of a risk of another below-average winter rainfall, reducing dam levels, and to assist reliability of water supply which was affected by ongoing load shedding.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis congratulated Cape Town on Monday for maintaining yet another week below the 850 MLD target for water use as the City’s water dashboard recorded an average total daily water use of 845 MLD.
At the last meeting with the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, members said water scarcity continued to be a provincial risk and discussed the province’s response to this risk, as well as mitigation and adaptation measures to sustainably manage water resources.
Ashia Petersen, director of sustainable resource use and management at the Department of Agriculture, gave takeaways from the Western Cape Water Indaba in March that needed to be actioned.
“I emphasise the need for us as a province to become more water resilient … It has been elevated to a provincial risk. A collaborative approach between all spheres of government and a whole of society approach is critical in terms of managing water. We also need to learn from the lessons of the 2015 – 2018 drought, which was a 1 in 650-year drought,” Petersen.
Petersen said this drought emphasised that climate change is a reality and that the province needed to develop further preparedness for droughts, floods and other extreme events.
“It is also important that we implement restrictions timeously, sometimes they are implemented too late - we could have prevented high restriction levels if we had done this in a more measured way.
“Water metering is also important in municipalities to reduce water loss. We also need to review water tariffs and of course explore alternative water sources,” Petersen said.
Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) spokesperson Wisane Mavasa indicated that the dam levels on the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS) is currently at 57.91%, a notable decline compared to 68.35% same time last year.
"The Department takes note of the rising panic amongst some of the water users due to the declining water levels, however, no cause for alarm as the dam is at a far better position than it was during the time of drought five years ago," Mavasa said.
The department, together with other spheres of Government, said they were closely monitoring the situation and will take appropriate measures to safeguard water security.