Cape Town deputy mayor applauds ‘record low’ water usage

526-million litres per day: that’s how much water Cape Town used last week. And the city’s deputy mayor  Ian Neilson believes that’s a cause for (moderate) praise.

“This is the first time that the weekly average usage has remained under 550-million litres due to the City’s pressure management interventions and the efforts by our residents to use as little water as possible,” he writes in a press release.

“A year ago, the average water demand was 830-million litres per day and the weekly change in dam levels was 1.9%.”

Last week, dam levels dropped just 0.6%. In 2016, the rate of decrease was much, much steeper.

All data sourced from the City of Cape Town’s dam reports.

“Two years ago water usage was more than one billion litres per day, resulting in a weekly change of 2.1%. If our dam levels were currently dropping at this rate we would reach Day Zero before the end of March,” Neilson adds.

The decrease usage however is largely thanks to a plummet in agricultural consumption.

In early January, agriculture had a 50% share in water usage alongside the City of Cape Town and other smaller municipalities. As of 13 February, this share has dropped to just 10%.

At the time of writing, the reduced water consumption has resulted in another push-back for Day Zero — the day that taps will be switched off for Cape Town’s residents. The new date is 4 June 2018.

Featured image: RayMark via Pixabay (CC0)