Cape Town water consumption only 66 million litres above target

Capetonians are winning their battle against Day Zero.

Thanks to locals' water-saving efforts, the city's collective daily consumption over the past week was only 66 million litres above the target of 450 million litres per day.

Over the past week, water usage was 5 million litres lower than the previous week's usage and the collective consumption stood at 516 million litres.

Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson also said that the City of Cape Town’s advanced pressure management programme was yielding results and that 50 million litres of water have been saved on average per day through the "tireless efforts" of staff at the Department of Water and Sanitation.

"Our first-phase target for this programme was to save 52 million litres per day and we have achieved this ahead of schedule," Neilson added.

Capetonians have been asked to aim to use 450 million litres per day to stretch available water supplies through the rest of year, Neilson said.

"We are constantly seeing water-saving world-firsts in the making and we must continue our efforts to stretch our water supplies. We have to continue to strive to meet our 50-litre target. Judging from what we have achieved thus far, we can do it," he said.