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You can’t go to a dinner / braai / event in Cape Town these days without talking about the water crisis, so you may as well be informed.

Last week we showed that water levels at the city’s six major dams were sitting at 21,2% (HERE), which was a little disheartening after what had seemed like some pretty damp weather.

Yesterday the city released their latest stats, and the good news is that we’ve once again seen a rise in overall levels.

From the City’s website:

So we’re up close to 2% from last week, and around 4% since the now infamous #CapeStorm, but here comes the bad news via EWN:

The city says level 4 water restrictions will remain in place indefinitely and could even be intensified over the long term.

It will take a few seasons of normal rainfall for the dams to recover. And a tough summer is predicted next year.

Kevin Winter of the University of Cape Town’s Future Water Institute says although a city initiative to reach out to the market is coming rather late, it will still be a beneficial exercise.

“There is no one solution. There are multiple solutions that need to be unlocked. Groundwater is just one of a number of others, which starts at households which are our main water user in the city.”

He adds that at least 500mm of rain will have to fall in the large catchment areas, this winter and the next, to fill dams to at least 80%.

Via the City’s weekly Dam Levels PDF, the rainfall from the past week:

Here in the City Bowl it barrelled down for much of last night, so maybe we can hope for another 2% increase in next week’s report.

The struggle continues.

[sources:ctgov&ewn]