Day Zero moved back to June as water saving in CPT reaches new peak

While Cape Town residents are being put through 36C heat on Tuesday, they have also received some good news as Day Zero has once again been pushed back. As it stands, water is set to run out on 4 June 2018.

City of Cape Town Executive Deputy Mayor Alderman Ian Neilson has said that the delay is a result of the continued decline in agricultural usage as well as Capetonians reducing their water usage.

For Neilson, progress is being made but more still has to be done.

“Team Cape Town, we are getting there. We now need to see how low we can go to ensure that we stretch our water supplies as far as possible into the winter months by reaching the 450 million litre per day collective consumption target which equates to 50 litres per person per day.”

“Over the past week, water consumption has been lowered to 526 million litres per day. This is the first time that the weekly average usage has remained under 550 million litres.”

While dam levels for the city are at only 24,9% Neilson says his government has “more control” over the system that supplies water to the City. Continued engagement with the National Department of Water and Sanitation has also led to “much improved” data sharing and analysis. This has allowed for more reliable modelling and “dramatically improved control over dam levels.”

DA leader Mmusi Maimane says his party joins in celebrating the latest water news.

“I thank residents for their commitment shown. If we keep consumption this low for the weeks and months to come, we will defeat Day Zero in 2018.”

“We all must continue using less than 50l per day, so that we can move Day Zero even further back and defeat it altogether.”

Can Cape Town residents keep up the good work avoid Day Zero all together? One can only hope…