Cape Town – Less than half of Cape Town’s residents adhered to the City’s 87 litres per day individual water consumption targets in the last two weeks, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille.
In the City’s weekly water updates, De Lille said on Tuesday only 36% of Capetonians used less than 87 litres of water per day, compared to 44% the previous week.
Due to unexpected recent rains, the date set for Cape Town’s dams to run dry has been extended from May 6 to May 20, 2018.
"If it wasn’t for this rain, Day Zero would have come rushing forward by another fortnight due to the alarmingly high consumption," De Lille said.
Citywide water consumption stood at 631 million per day for the week ending on Monday.
"It is crucial that everyone does more to save so that we can reach the target of 500 million litres per day and move Day Zero even further back."
Plans for additional water levy
News24 previously reported that the City was considering introducing an additional water levy after "good water saving by residents" negatively affected its income.
The City said it had managed to divert R2.6bn from its budget to finance seven emergency water augmentation schemes, including desalination, water reuse and aquifer drilling.
In written answers to News24, De Lille said a final decision regarding an additional levy had not yet been made.
"We are investigating the possibility of a levy, but no decision has been made. The City will make announcements when we are able to," she said.
"The City has experienced a decrease in revenue as a result of the good water saving efforts by residents and this does affect our finances.
"Until we can make announcements on decisions made with regard [to] funding options, I can assure you that the City's finances are in good shape," De Lille said.
