Here is some good news for all Capetonians. The city has just announced that in 2018 and 2019 the Day Zero will not happen. For those who do not know, the dreaded Day Zero is a day when most taps in the city get turned off.
On Thursday, Executive deputy mayor Alderman Ian made a statement in which he said that “thanks to the dam levels which have risen consistently over the last six weeks, Cape Town holds a much stronger position than it did at the end of last winter”.
According to News24, the level of the Mother City’ supply dams have risen up to 42.7% full on Monday due to the recent winter rains. These statistics show that the dam levels are higher than they were in both 2017 and 2016.
“Provided that adequate water restrictions are maintained, the City is confident that there will be no prospect of reaching Day Zero in 2019,” Ian Neilson announced.
See Also: Cape Town Water Restrictions 2017/18
Cape Town successfully managed to avoid Day Zero and the results show that the city will safely get through next summer in 2019. Neilson also said “This is due to the amount of water already in the dams, our intense water demand management programmes, our unrelenting communication, awareness and behavioural change it has effected over the past two years, as well as the continued support and sacrifice of Team Cape Town”.
Citizens should keep in mind that the drought is still on-going and the City of Cape Town announced that its stringent water restrictions are scheduled to be maintained.
Neilson also said how he hopes that water restrictions and the tariffs which are associated with them will be reduced in the near future. “This decision is dependent on national government relaxing restrictions on releases from the water supply system,” he also stated.
What this means is that the level 6B water restrictions will remain in place. This restriction has been in effect since January 2018.
During the 6B restrictions, 50l per person per day was the limit of water consumptions in hope that in 2018 the Day Zero can be avoided.
