For residents of Cape Town’s informal settlements, tighter water restrictions won’t make any difference, reports GroundUp.
If the City of Cape Town has to move to Phase 2 – Disaster Restrictions – of its drought response plan, some households in formal settlements will no longer have running water and will have to fetch drinking water from points of distribution (PODs).
But nothing will change for households in informal settlements, which get their water from standpipes anyway.
Phase 2 is the "Disaster Restrictions Phase", and Phase 3 the "Full-scale disaster implementation".
The Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services, and Energy, Xanthea Limberg, said that if the City moved to Phase 2, informal settlements would be prioritised.
During this phase, water collection sites or PODs will be established around the city, and some households in formal settlements will not have access to piped drinking water.
Informal settlements will continue to receive water from standpipes.
Some residents of informal settlements say the drought has made no difference to the problems they already have with access to water.
Many households share the same standpipe; there are problems with water pressure; and periods when the pipe stops functioning altogether.
According to the 2011 Census, 12% of the 1 068 572 households in the City of Cape Town received tap water from a communal stand.