Relief for Cape Town as city relaxes water restrictions
Capetonians have just 20 days left of onerous restrictions that limit individuals’ daily usage to 50 litres
Capetonians will soon be permitted to increase their water usage from 50 litres to 70 litres per person per day. Deputy mayor Ian Neilson made the announcement on Monday. After a devastating drought‚ the province’s dams are now at 68% storage capacity due to good rainfall at the beginning of winter. "Water restrictions and the associated tariffs are thus to be conservatively lowered in the interim to level 5 from October 1 2018. This will bring tariff relief of between 26.6% and 70% per kilolitre of water‚ depending on the usage and tariff category‚" he said. Neilson said the Western Cape Water Supply System’s dams were at 38% capacity at the end of the last winter. He said the recent drought was "so uncommon that it only has an estimated return period of 311 years". Rainfall remains highly variable‚ and while May and June had rainfall close to the average‚ July had very poor rainfall. This improved somewhat in August‚ with the positive trend continuing in September. "The relaxation...
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