The City of Cape Town just announced there will be no Day Zero in 2019

drought Day Zero Good advice from someone who has already survived a "Day Zero"

Photo Cred: Pexels

The City of Cape Town has announced that Day Zero will not happen in 2018 or 2019. This is great news for everyone as long as they follow restrictions.

Executive deputy mayor Alderman Ian Neilson announced this morning that thanks to recent rainfall, dam levels have risen consistently over the last six weeks. He confirmed that the City is in a stronger position than it was at the end of winter last year.

The overall level of the city’s supply dams is nearer to 50% this week. This statistic is highest since 2016 and 2017 levels were reported.

“Provided that adequate water restrictions are maintained, the City is confident that there will be no prospect of reaching Day Zero in 2019,” Neilson announced.

“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 affected over the past two years, as well as the continued support and sacrifice of Team Cape Town,” he said.

The drought is not over, as we mentioned earlier this week, it will take at least 4 good rain seasons before the drought is over. All water restrictions are to be maintained and the current 6B restrictions will not be lifted until it is safe to do so.

“While we hope to reduce the current water restrictions in the near future, and the tariffs associated with them, this decision is dependent on national government relaxing restrictions on releases from the water supply system,” Neilson said.

Under the 6B restrictions, water consumption is still limited to 50l per person per day. If Capetonians continue their efforts, the city will be well on its way to a better footing. You can see today’s dam level stats below.