While most Capetonians were enjoying the fabulous spring conditions yesterday, those who stayed connected would have learnt that further water restrictions have been implemented in the city in an effort to reach the 500-million-litres-a-day goal.

Announcing the news was Mayor Patricia de Lille, who detailed just what Level Five restrictions mean for both residents and commercial users, reports News24:

“There is now a new emphasis on capping excessive water use at the domestic household level and placing additional restrictions on the commercial sector.”

Managers of commercial properties are encouraged, with immediate effect, to ensure that their monthly consumption of municipal water is “reduced by 20 percent compared to last year”.

On the domestic side of things, de Lille explained that “the cap on individual domestic property usage is now set at 20kl per month”. If this were broken, a fine within the region of R5 000 to R10 000 could be expected.

Then, there’s this:

Further pressure reduction is likely to result in supply interruptions being experienced in higher-lying areas of the city’s supply zones for short periods during the day.

Multi-storey buildings that do not make use of pumps and overhead tanks as required by the City’s building regulations are likely to experience supply problems.

Residents are encouraged to approach their body corporates or managing agents to ensure that these systems are in place and operational. Residents are advised to keep an emergency store of between 2 – 5 litres of water for drinking and basic hygiene at all times.

The original limit of 87 litres per person and “overall collective target of 500 million litres per day” has remained:

“As of last week, consumption stood at 599 million litres per day.

“With the winter rainfall season likely to end in the next three to four weeks, we simply have to get used to using less water as we enter the summer season.”

De Lille explained that while all water users had a shown a decrease in consumption, offices and small business had not:

“Commercial water users can reduce their consumption by installing water-efficient plumbing fittings and water-saving devices,” De Lille said.

If you’re  unsure of the amount of water you use, pop over here to calculate your daily consumption – and just hope to the high heavens that it’s not more than 87 litres a day.

[source:news24]