The big dam and its five sister reservoirs in the Western Cape system not only supply water for drinking but also for farm irrigation.
“But in reality, water resources managers plan for nothing more than 98 percent assurity”—or a 2 percent chance of a water shortfall—“so they’re not planning for anything that’s going to take them out of the normal planning regime, because there are other priorities for spending for local and national government, particularly in a country like South Africa.” A city on edge Three police vehicles pull into a shopping center parking lot in Wynberg, a leafy, middle-class district of Cape Town.
Between October 2017 and May 2018, city workers installed more than 46,170 “water management devices” that throttled the flow of water into homes that used more than 10,500 liters (or about 2,800 gallons) a month.
By the April 2015 meeting, consultants working with the group were projecting a 2022 target for the next supply project.
The question was whether there was appropriate perception that they were needed at this time.” Muller said that the city’s confidence in its demand management sent a clear signal to the national government that it did not need to fast-track a supply project for the Western Cape system.
At the same time, the Department of Water and Sanitation, which operates the Western Cape system, was coming under scrutiny for mismanagement and unjustified spending.
The department also did not enforce water-use restrictions in 2016-2017 from the Western Cape system.
Currently Cape Town recycles only 8 percent of its water.
Residents proved they could get by with only 50 liters per day.
We all pulled together to get through the crisis, to make sure our dams do not run empty.