The day Cape Town's taps run dry, popularly known as "Day Zero", has moved back to May this year largely as a result of declining agricultural usage, the City of Cape Town said on Monday.
"Many of the agricultural users in the Western Cape Supply System, where the City also draws its water from, have used up the water allocated to them as per agreement with the National Department of Water and Sanitation. Agricultural usage is therefore likely to drop significantly over the next weeks," a statement from deputy mayor Ian Nielsen said.
"Currently, the agriculture sector is drawing about 30% of the water in the supply scheme. This should fall to approximately 15% in March and 10% in April. It must be noted that the City does not have any control over agricultural releases, so this is the best estimate we can make with the information at hand."
The City will however maintain level 6B water restrictions as there has been no significant decrease in urban water use.
"All Capetonians must therefore continue to use no more than 50 litres per person per day to help stretch our dwindling supplies."
If Cape Town does not experience any significant rainfall before May 11 (Day Zero), residents will have to start queuing for water.
- African News Agency (ANA),
