Cape Town seems to have hauled itself back from the precipice of disaster – for now, at least – and the City is rewarding us by reducing water restrictions from this Saturday, December 1.

We’ll be dropping from level five restrictions down to level three, which means an increase from 70 litres per person per day up to 105 litres per person per day.

I’m not sure why we can’t just stick with 70 litres, given that everybody seems to have come to terms with that number, but I guess the City wants everyone to know they’ve done a sterling job of handling this issue.

We only need to look at the mascot to know that ain’t the case.

Still, the easing of restrictions will provide financial relief for many, as water costs will be reduced, and that’s always a nice plus.

TimesLIVE have more from today’s announcement:

The city’s new collective water-use target from Saturday will be 650 million litres a day, compared with a never-achieved 450 million litres under the unprecedented level 6 drought restrictions.

[New Cape Town mayor Dan] Plato said water tariffs were also being reduced, and households that limited their monthly consumption to 6,000 litres would pay 35.5% less. The requirement for businesses to reduce their water consumption by 40% year-on-year has also been removed.

The mayor said the relaxation of restrictions followed the latest assessment by the national water department. Dam levels were at 71% on Wednesday, compared with 36% a year ago.

Plato said the government assessment indicated that Cape Town water users needed to save between 10% and 20% of their historical water consumption for the new hydrological year.

Xanthea Limberg, the City’s mayoral committee member for water, also spoke of the financial relief:

“These level 3 recovery restrictions are also a measure to help support the great change we have seen in the relationship that we have with water while, at the same time, providing some financial relief to residents and businesses.

Let’s check in with the City’s website, which updated the dam levels yesterday (November 28):

Here’s hoping we’re not left regretting this decision further down the line.

I don’t know about you, but I see no reason to go back to flushing the toilet for a pee.

[sources:timeslive&coct]