Water levels at dams that supply South Africa’s Cape Town have fallen further this week, the latest sign of a worsening crisis that could see the tourist city run out of water by April.
Dam levels in the Western Cape Province fell to 24.5 per cent this week, down from 25.3 per cent the previous week. According to local data, the dam levels were at 38 per cent a year ago, and the constant drop prompted fears late last year that the city residents risked running out of water if rains did not come sooner.
Authorities on Tuesday announced that Day Zero – the day when taps run completely dry – has been projected to come on April 16.
Earlier this month, the authorities announced that water use for residents of Cape Town will have to be no more than 50 litres a day from February.
“The city has reached a point of no return,” Mayor Patricia de Lille had said.
“We can no longer ask people to stop wasting water. We must force them,” she said at a press conference in mid January.
“Despite our urging for months, 60% of Capetonians are callously using more than 87 litres per day,” she added, referring to the then daily limit.
Cape Town authorities had earlier in the year banned car washing and filling up of swimming pools as part of efforts to conserve water.
Much of southern Africa has been recovering from a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, following heavy summer rains.
However, Cape Town is still gripped by a drought and has had very low rainfall for the last three years.
