The Mayor of Cape Town has announced the Level 6B water restrictions and confirmed that people will only be allowed 50 litres of water per day. These changes will be effective from the 1st of February.
The City of Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, has confirmed that more than 60% of Cape Town residents are not saving water. She made this statement during a media briefing on the new Level 6B water restrictions that will be implemented from the 1st of February.
These restrictions include a massive drop in the daily allowance of water per person. Currently, the allowance is at 87 litres a day but from the 1st of Feb, this will drop to 50 litres per day.
According to the mayor, taps will be shut off on the 1st of April, which has been earmarked as day zero but should the current rate of water usage continue it could be sooner.
“It is quite unbelievable that a majority of people do not seem to care and are sending all of us headlong towards Day Zero. At this point we must assume that they will not change their behaviour and that the chance of reaching Day Zero on 21 April 2018 is now very likely.
The people who are still wasting water seem to believe that Day Zero just can’t happen or that the City’s seven augmentation projects – set to produce around 200 million litres per day – will be enough to save us. This is not the case and, while our water augmentation programme will make Cape Town more water resilient in the future, it was never going to be enough to stop Day Zero.”
The following was announced about day zero according to a News24 Journalist that live-tweeted from the media briefing.
#CapeWater details of how water rationing will not be misused will be released next week. Locations will be released, marked by posters from next week as well. @TeamNews24
— James de Villiers (@pejames) January 18, 2018
James then tweeted the key points from the briefing.
- City’s new collective water consumption target 450 million litres per day – currently sits at 620 million litres.
- Residents will still pay at the collection point for water when Day Zero arrives.
- CBD and informal residents to be excluded from Day zero cutoffs.
Apparently, properties, where households consume more than 10,500 litres per month, could also be fitted with a water management device.
The city of Cape Town shared a statement about the level 6B restrictions.
“We will be moving to level 6B restrictions with a new limit of 50 litres per person per day to make up for the many months of missing the 500 million litre per day collective consumption target.
The new restrictions will come into effect on 1 February 2018.
The new daily collective consumption target is now 450 million litres per day. This will be in place for 150 days after which the City will reassess the situation. Level 6B restrictions will also limit irrigation using boreholes and wellpoints.”
This is all very grim news but fear not, we have come up with a few more tips on how to make 50 litres a day work for you and your family.
- Start cutting back on the amount of water you use today and if you have space, freeze 1 to 2 litres of your allocated 87 litres so that you have backups.
- A 2-minute shower can use 20 litres in one go, reduce your shower to 1-minute or share a shower session with your partner.
- Place the plug in your sink to stop water from running down the drain when rinsing after you dry brush your teeth. Collect said water and use it for the toilet.
- Save your grey water for the toilet and place a brick in the cistern to reduce the amount of water in the tank.
- Tie a packet around your shower head after use to prevent the drops of water from being wasted. Literally, every drop counts now.
- Wipe down all dishes with a damp cloth and do dishes every second-day. Or make use of paper plates that can be recycled.
- Invest in dry shampoo, anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitizer to reduce water usage.
- Fill a 2-litre bottle with drinking water each day and drink only that. Do this for your pets as well. (keep their water indoors to prevent evaporation)
- Use your swimming pool water for toilets.
- Take your washing to friends and family and do one large load with everyone’s things.
- Cook one meal a day. Make enough for leftovers the next day.
We used the water calculator to see if it is possible to live like this and it is. This is what we input and got 42.9 litres, that means you have 7.1 litres left to play with.
- 1x 2-minute shower = 20 litres
- 1x Toilet flush = 9 litres
- 1x Sink of dishes = 9 litres
- 2x Brushing your teeth = 0.30 litres
- 1x Cooked meal = 0.60 litres
- 8x Glasses of water = 2 litres
- 1x Medium bowl of water for a pet = 2 litres
It isn’t ideal but is proof that it isn’t impossible either. We truly hope that it rains soon and will continue to do our rain dances for Cape Town.
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