Cape Town dams rises to the brim first time in 5 years

City of Cape Town is considering lowering water tariffs as dam levels rose to 91.3% on Tuesday.

This comes after August ended with rainfall a wet end to August.

According to the mayoral committee member for water and waste, Xanthea Limberg, Dam levels rose with an increase of 3.3 percentage since August 24 while average consumption decreased by nine million litres a day.

She said “significant recent rainfall has pushed total rainfall for 2019/20 close to the long-term average, and dams are close to full for the first time since 2013/2014.”

These factors could be considered in easing water restrictions as soon as the hydrological years ends on October 31.

She warned that the plan is not certain as climate change could affect the sustainability of city water resources.

She confirmed that the city was using 30% less water after the drought which hit the Western Cape, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape in 2015.

According to her, tariffs reduction depends largely on consumption and the additional costs which came with increasing the city’s drought resilience.

“It is important that the city covers its costs to ensure the maintenance and augmentation programmes can be carried out,” said Limberg.

“Should the amount of water we are selling significantly increase, this will be factored into the tariffs, but given the uncertain impact of climate change it may not be wise to actively encourage such an approach at this stage.”

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