Water Wheel Sept 2021: Water Conservation

Abstract

Keep on saving – Water demand management in a time of plenty This year’s winter has been a wet one in the Western Cape, with rainfall well above the long-term average. By mid-August the dams supplying Cape Town were collectively 98% full, having hit the 100% mark in October 2020 for the first time since 2014 and then dropped back down to 67% after the dry summer months. Water restrictions, which had already been relaxed considerably since the height of the drought, when a daily personal usage limit of 50 litres was imposed between February and October 2018, were lifted altogether from 1 November 2020, although water-saving regulations under the City of Cape Town’s Water Bylaw (2010, amended in 2018) will remain permanently in place. These stipulate, for example, that garden watering may only be done before 9:00 or after 18:00, that swimming pools are kept covered when not in use, and that new or replaced toilet cisterns may not exceed six litres in capacity.

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