88 days of water left in Cape Town

The City of Cape Town on Monday said the city's feeder dams only have enough water for another 88 days.

The city asked residents to decrease city water usage to 600-million litres per day. Previously the city’s target was to have consumption below 700-million litres per day.

Water consumption in the city increased to 745-million litres from 685-million litres the week before.

Water and waste services and energy councillor Xanthea Limberg said in the statement it appears residents adjust water consumption according to weather conditions.

“In other words, they use more water as soon as it heats up, but seemingly also [more] when there is rain,” she said.

“This is not sustainable. We must use water in a consistent manner during this time of crisis.”

In the statement, the city said its dam levels decreased to 23.3%.

With the last 10% of our dam water mostly being unusable, dam levels are effectively at 13.3%, the city said.

The city also announced that mayor Patricia de Lille plans to have a water “festival of ideas” in June.

At the festival suppliers of large, utility-scale water supply and water saving equipment can share their ideas and offerings with city officials, the city said.