Provincial dam levels have fallen to below 50% full on average, with the Western Cape MEC of Environmental Affairs Anton Bredell calling on all local municipalities to evaluate their water security and consider implementation of water restrictions.

The Department of Water and Sanitation released its latest weekly report, indicating an average level of 49.7% for Western Cape dams and 56.4% for the dams providing water to Cape Town.

These levels are significantly lower than the same time last year, when the province saw a combined level of 65%, and Cape Town a combined level of 80.8%.

The Department of Local Government will be interacting with each municipality in the province to assess and evaluate their water security situation.

Bredell has called on municipalities to ensure their water infrastructure is well maintained to minimize leaks and water management systems should be optimised so all water can be accounted for.

He says catchments should be kept free of alien plants, as this can also save considerable volumes of water.

Of course residents must also play their part.

“Small individual actions, such as reusing water, can make a huge collective difference. We should always treat water as a scarce and valuable resource, irrespective of our dam levels.”

The City of Cape Town has called on all who live in Cape Town, including residents and businesses, to share how they are being water wise this summer by using the hashtag #WaterWiseSummerCT

Last week, water usage reached one billion litres a day. This is much higher than the 850 million litres per day target that the public is urged to stay below to help keep dam and reservoirs full for longer.

Residents have been urged to reduce their personal and non-essential outdoor water usage by 50%.

During his State of the Province address this week, Premier Alan Winde announced his government will launch a water resilience project this year.

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