Cape Town must cut water usage to 500-million litres a day as disaster looms
Daily water consumption last week was 666-million litres, but that did not stop dam levels dropping
First it was 800-million litres a day. As dam levels declined it became 700-million‚ then 600-million. And on Wednesday‚ Cape Town was told to cut its water use to 500-million litres a day. Announcing "a new and heightened response to the drought" at a city council meeting‚ mayor Patricia de Lille said: "It might be very hard and very difficult now but the risk of running out of water is even more disastrous." De Lille announced two new "water resilience" bodies — a task team and an advisory committee — and asked the council to pre-approve further restrictions on water use that could be implemented in the next two months if necessary. "We cannot be sure whether it will rain this winter‚" she said. "We have gone through May with nothing much to show with regard to rainfall. June might be better‚ but the point is we do not know." Daily water consumption last week was 666-million litres‚ the lowest achieved so far‚ but it did not stop dam levels declining 0.8 percentage points to 19.7%...
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