Well done, Cape Town, we managed to stave off Day Zero.

Cue long, sultry baths in the Southern Suburbs and greening lawns across the rolling hills of Constantia.

“But MyMusi Mymoney said it’s fine, darling, so bring me more chardonnay because it’s five-o-clock somewhere in the world.”

The same cannot be said for the folks of Saldanha, who have gone into emergency mode to try and stave off their own Day Zero by this time next week.

Those details from News24:

The government will release water from the Berg River Dam into the Misverstand Dam as a lifeline to Saldanha, whose water supply will run out in seven days.

…Saldanha, the centre of one of the country’s industrial development zones, has enough water in the Misverstand supply dam to last only until April 24, Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti said at a briefing on Tuesday.

If Misverstand Dam runs dry, Saldanha would then have to get water from the Voëlvlei Dam, which supplies 22 other West Coast towns. This would leave those towns, which include Malmesbury, Piketberg and Morreesberg, with enough water to last only until the end of the month.

You don’t want to be relying on the Voëlvlei Dam for your water, because it sits at below 14% of its maximum storage capacity.

From Monday, and via the City of Cape Town, here are our latest dam levels:

Not a good look at all.

I know it’s going to bucket down later today here in the Mother City, and we can look forward to some truly awful driving as a result, but you need to lay off those baths.

And that chardonnay, because people are starting to talk.

Anyway, back to Saldanha’s plight:

Nkwinti said after a meeting on Friday of all levels of government, he had decided to release five million cubic metres of water from the Berg River into the Misverstand Dam. Water would be supplemented into the Berg River dam through emergency pumping from the Theewaterskloof Dam.

This emergency supply would last Saldanha until July 31.

By then there should have been some rainfall in the Cape dam catchment area.

The amount of water taken from the Berg River would mean a drop of about 0.4% in the dams that supply Cape Town.

With the release of such a volume of water, there is also the risk of flooding, with municipalities along the Berg River readying their disaster management teams.

By now you’ve already seen a million photos and videos from Theewaterskloof Dam, but here’s one more to add to the mix:

[source:news24]