CT dam levels decline further, City implements pilot to lower water use

The City believes the best way to manage a drought is by increasing efforts to reduce water use.

The City of Cape Town tweeted this photograph of the Faure Reservoir as it launches its pilot project in a bid to help lower water use. Picture: City of Cape Town on Twitter

Dam levels continue to decline in Cape Town, with storage levels having decreased by 1.1% since last Monday, and consumption levels are 42 million litres above the City of Cape Town’s collective usage target per day.

The City of Cape Town Media Office on Monday issued a statement in which it said that dam storage levels had declined to 25.2%, but with the last 10% of dam water unusable, the dam levels were at 15.2%.

Last week when the levels had declined to 16.2%, the City had said that at current consumption levels, there were only about 100 days of usable water left.

Dam levels are at 15,2% of usable water!
Reduce your personal use to about 100 litres a day.https://t.co/lmhYmEaIgf #ThinkWaterCT pic.twitter.com/iN9i5UgdkU

— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) April 11, 2017

While the city was receiving a “bit of rain”, the City of Cape Town urged residents to continue to save water as consumption remained “too high” at 42 million litres above the collective usage target of 700 million litres a day.

This means that despite the City’s appeals last Monday for residents to reduce their water consumption, the levels remained relatively similar as the previous week at the end of March, as the City had said consumption had been at 741-million-litres a day.

Cape Town remains on level 3B water restrictions. These were implemented on February 1.

The City’s mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water, waste services and energy councillor Xanthea Limberg warned: “It will take a number of consecutive winters of good rainfall for our dam levels to recover – and there is no guarantee that we will have above average rainfall in the coming winter.”

Limberg further stated that the best way to manage a drought was by increasing efforts to reduce water use.

“We have begun controlling the supply from our large Faure Reservoir by reducing pressure at the reservoir itself. If the pressure is lower, less water flows at a time. This is an innovative pilot project which has lowered pressure to the central and southern suburbs,” said Limberg, adding that it was estimated that it was saving about 25-million litres of water per day.

“This work continues and consumers in the higher-lying central and southern suburb areas will also start to notice a drop in water pressure.”

Drought crisis: Faure Reservoir pilot to help lower water use https://t.co/Y57Mkg6XCB #CTNews pic.twitter.com/gPM3YQ3wfs

— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) April 11, 2017

The City on Monday also commenced with “the reduction of pressure in our connections to the distribution system over a wide area” with the aim of reducing water losses through pipework leaks.

This area includes: Blackheath, Kleinvlei, Kuils River, Delft, Macassar, Firgrove, Somerset West, Strand, Gordon’s Bay and Sir Lowry’s Pass Village.

The City warned: “It should be understood that some areas may experience loss of supply during the introduction of the additional pressure reduction measures and until the required balance has been achieved,” adding that consumers should not be alarmed if low pressure or a drop in water supply in an area was experienced as it would “only be temporary until the balance is achieved”.

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