Day Zero rushes forward – and is set to continue as usage of Capetonians surges

High water usage by residents of Cape Town over this past week has brought Day Zero closer by in excess of three weeks to 29 April 2018.

Total storage has fallen by 1,1%. As of this week, dam levels stand at 33%. The City’s overall water usage rose to 641 million litres per day. As at today, only 34% of our residents are saving water. Agricultural users also consumed water at a similar rate to the city.

The dashboard can be viewed here: www.capetown.gov.za/dayzerodashboard

‘If water consumption continues to rise, together with the very hot windy conditions which increase evaporation losses, we can expect Day Zero to happen as soon as 18 March 2018. This is a terrifying prospect. Residential customers remain the largest portion of water users. If we can bring consumption down to 500 million litres per day, we will be able to avoid Day Zero,’ said the City’s Director of Water and Sanitation, Peter Flower.

Day Zero is the day that almost all of the taps in the city will be turned off and people will have to queue for water at approximately 200 sites across the peninsula.

Although some essential services will stay connected, almost all residential suburbs will be cut off.

The City’s teams will be working throughout the festive season to ensure that our average response time to leaks or burst pipes is under two hours and that we maintain the advanced pressure management system that is limiting demand.

We will also be rolling out an additional 40 000 water management devices from January onwards to high consumption households ignoring water restrictions. We have already installed more than 21 000 water management devices on the properties of high users to date and this will continue over December.

Level 6 water restrictions will come into effect from 1 January 2018 and all households who use more than 10,5 kilolitres per month will have a water management device fitted.

Evaporation has been less than expected over the past week due to cooler temperatures, but as temperatures climb we can expect to see dam levels falling much faster. We’ve been lucky with extra rain and low evaporation so far, but the next few months will be brutally hot and there is almost no chance of rain. If residential and agricultural users continue to draw this much water from the dams, we will reach Day Zero by 18 March 2018.

Please see www.capetow.gov.za/thinkwater for more water-related information.

Statement issued by the City of Cape Town, 19 December 2017