Water tariffs to be reassessed, but resident’s must keep saving, says City of Cape Town

Water tariffs will be reassessed at a meeting of all users of the Western Cape’s water supply system around November, said the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for water and waste Xanthea Limberg.

“We acknowledge residents’ calls to lower water tariffs,” she said.

Fuller dams, however, did not necessarily mean the city was out of the woods yet, Limberg warned.

“This winter, we have again received lower than average rainfall so far, and as such the City plans to maintain current Level 1 water restrictions and tariffs for the moment.”

Cape Town’s dam levels decreased by 0.3% last week to 81.6%, with collective water consumption increasing to 598 million litres per day – up by 30 million litres.

Despite the increase in water use, Capetonians remain within the daily allocation target of 650 million litres per day.

Last year, Cape Town dodged the dreaded Day Zero – when most of the taps would have been turned off – following years of below-average rainfall.

After dam levels rose consistently in May and June in 2018, the council announced that the disaster had been averted and would not happen that year or in 2019, provided that adequate water restrictions were maintained.

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