A man collects drinking water from taps that are fed by a spring in Newlands on May 15, 2017, in Cape Town.
South Africa’s Western Cape region which includes Cape Town declared a drought disaster on May 22 as the province battled its worst water shortages for 113 years. This dam is the main water source for the city of Cape Town, and there is only 10% of it’s usual capacity left for human consumption, at the last 10% is not useable, due to the silt content.
Credit: AFP/ Rodger BOSCH
Capetonians have managed to get water usage down to 522 million litres per day over the past week – 43 million litres less than the previous week’s water usage.
The City of Cape Town still requires Capetonians to reduce collective usage to 450 million litres per day or 50l per person per day.
“We need to achieve this target in order to stretch the available water supplies through the rest of the year,” said Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson.
“The more water we use, the faster our dam […]
