The City of Cape Town has urged residents to watch their water usage as consumption steadily increases amid dropping dam levels.
"Dams that supply Cape Town have declined by 1.6% over the past week to 57.4% of storage capacity," the City said in a statement on Monday.
Conversely, the average water consumption has gone up by 19 million litres per day to 633 million litres per day.
"While we remain within our allocated allowance of 650 million litres per day, we need to exercise caution and continue with water-wise behaviour," the City stated.
Although the situation is not as severe as last year when there were Level 6B restrictions, Level 3 restrictions are in place.
Read: National water dept, City of Cape Town differ on water consumption level for next year
This means:
- Each person should not use more than 105 litres of water a day;
- People should use a bucket if washing vehicles with drinking water;
- Toilets must be flushed with grey water, rain water or other non-drinking water;
- Commercial car washes must recycle or reuse a minimum of 50% of water used;
- Residents must not water or irrigate with municipal drinking water within 48 hours of rain;
- Residents must water and irrigate with municipal drinking water only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 09:00 or after 18:00 for one hour maximum, using a watering can;
- No hosepipes or sprinklers are allowed.