Thanks to the much-needed rains that Cape Town recently experienced, the City has lowered water restrictions and tariffs. While this is good news, it is crucial that we continue to use water sparingly to ensure we do not end up close to a crisis again.
According to a statement released on 8 October by the City of Cape Town, dam levels are at 76,2 % of storage capacity, and the City had therefore lowered water restrictions from Level 6 to Level 5 as an interim measure to provide some relief to residents. While this may be the case, it is important for Capetonians to do their very best to remain in the lower 500 million litres per day usage band until another limit is imposed by the National Department of Water and Sanitation.
However, it’s important to understand what the lowering of the restrictions means. In terms of Level 5 water restrictions, while personal usage has been increased from 50l per day to 70l per day, the following is still not allowed:
- Watering with municipal water.
- Topping up (manual or automatic) swimming pools with municipal drinking water.
- Washing vehicles, including cars, taxis, trailers, caravans or boats with municipal drinking water.
- Washing or hosing down hard surfaces with municipal water.
- Using municipal drinking water for ornamental fountains or water features.
So, while Day Zero is no longer imminent, it remains everyone’s responsibility to continue being water wise. The CCID’s autumn issue of its quarterly publication, City Views provided some of the practical things everyone can do to save water, including the following:
Laundry
- Ensure that you have a full load of washing.
- Set it to the shortest washing cycle.
- Skip the extra rinse to save water.
- Think about soaking your clothes first in a basin with biodegradable detergent so that you can reuse the grey water, and then just use the rinse and spin cycle on your machine.
Kitchen
- Don’t wash dishes one-by-one; rather wash them all at once.
- If you have to wash dishes, wipe them with a towel first to make water less dirty.
- Don’t rinse glasses, fruit and vegetables under running water. Plug the sink and reuse the water.
- Thaw frozen food in a refrigerator or a bowl of water, instead of under running water.
- When waiting for hot water to come out of the tap, place a bucket under the tap so you can use the cold water later.
- Only put as much water into your kettle as you need.
Toilet
- Only flush when necessary – a standard loo uses 9 litres per flush.
- Place a closed, flat-based 0,5-litre bottle filled with water in your toilet cistern, away from any moving parts, to reduce the amount of water you use per flush.
- Check if your toilet has a silent leak by putting a little food colouring in your cistern. If the colouring begins to appear in the bowl without flushing, there may be a leak.
- To save water, fill the toilet cistern itself with your grey water rather than pouring it directly into the toilet.
Basin
- When brushing your teeth, use a glass of water.
- Fix dripping taps.
- Don’t turn the tap on full, ever.
- Don’t leave the tap running while brushing, rinsing or shaving.
- Wash your hands with the plug in place.
Shower
- Take a 90-second shower and limit the number of showers you take per day/week.
- Use smaller towels or facecloths to dry yourself after a shower.
- If you can afford it, install a water-efficient shower head.
- Switch off the water between soaping and rinsing your body and hair.
- Place a bucket in your shower to collect water, which you can reuse to flush the loo or wash your car.
Image by Scott Arendse (Online Content Coordinator)