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It has been a while since I’ve flushed a toilet with a bucket of water carried precariously from the shower, but that doesn’t mean that us Capetonians have forgotten the Day Zero panic.

For now, we’ve dodged that bullet, albeit with the fear of shockingly short showers, daily limits on water consumption, and price hikes driven into us, and, ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ still ringing in our ears.

Safe to say we’re all a little more water conscious these days, even though, thanks to recent torrential rain, our dams have reached their highest levels in six years.

Feel free to break out the champagne – the sale of alcohol is permitted again, so that’s two things to celebrate.

According to TimesLive, as of Tuesday, six of our dams were 86,3% full, which accounts for a full 20 billion litres more than a day earlier.

The city’s biggest dam, Theewaterskloof, accounted for 10 billion litres of the one-day boost.

The last time we could enjoy those percentages was way back in 2014, following which three years of abysmal rainfall dropped them to 20%, and then came the dark days of buckets, two-minute showers, and Splash, the mascot for the #SaveWater ambassador programme which still haunts my nightmares.

Fast forward to winter 2019, and our dams were filling up. By the end of this winter season, experts predict that they will be at 100% capacity.

We still need to be cautious, though, as pointed out by mayoral committee member for water Xanthea Limberg.

“Future rainfall is uncertain and new water sources are still in development. A decision on restriction levels for the 2020/2021 hydrological year will be taken on review of the rainy season at the end of August,” she said.

“Tariffs for the new financial year, starting July 1, will be set only to recoup the expected costs of operations/maintenance, and as usual will therefore be significantly determined by anticipated volumes of water consumed by residents and business.”

While we’re sitting pretty for the time being, the rest of the country isn’t looking too good.

At the start of the year, a number of the country’s smaller towns like the Eastern Cape’s Graaff-Reinet hit headlines, alongside Harrismith in the Free State, as they struggled with water shortages.

Our friends in Gauteng are also likely regretting all of those cheeky bath pictures they posted during Cape Town’s Day Zero woes, as communiques, reports TimesLIVE, are sent out by the City of Tshwane to remind residents and businesses to save water.

“Water conservation means using our limited water supply wisely and utilising every effort to conserve it,” it said.

“Rand Water will restrict the bulk water supply to Tshwane the moment the city exceeds the allowed quota, as per the city’s licence agreement with the entity.

“If residents do not reduce consumption levels, the city will implement further and more stringent restrictions across the whole distribution network.”

Similar restrictions have been recommended to the ones that we had here in Cape Town. No watering of gardens between 6AM and 6PM (FYI, your neighbours are watching and they will post your picture on social media – trust and believe), no filling of swimming pools, and the shower bucket to loo system.

Read the full list of conservation measures for Gauteng here.

I’m off to take a brief, yet satisfying, shower.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]