The City of Cape Town has cautioned residents to keep an eye on consumption levels over the coming weeks. Water consumption for last week was up to 657 million litres/day, exceeding the current 650-million litres/day limit.
Dams supplying Cape Town are down 1,0% from the previous week sitting at 79,7% of storage capacity.
2019 has been another drier-than-average year, and it is important that Cape Town residents remain aware of their water use, especially as we approach the summer months.
Water is a commodity that we often take advantage of. Unfortunately water is sometimes scarce and in these times we need to know what to do to save water. Below are a few tips for saving water when there is no rain – of course, you can use these tips in rainy seasons as well.
Rainwater harvesting is a technique where rainwater is collected and stored in a water tank for future use. Basic uses include watering your garden, topping up your swimming pool, washing your car, flushing toilets and, if it is filtered, for use throughout the home. There are many benefits of rainwater harvesting. Here are just 5 examples of why it is something you should consider:
Hydraloop is an innovative in-house water recycling system which collects shower, bath and washing machine water, cleans and disinfects it, herewith recycling 85% of total in-house domestic water used. The water can be reused for lavatory flushing, washing machine, garden irrigation or to top up your swimming pool. Hydraloop looks completely different than any other existing water recycling system. Because of its stylish design you can show off your Hydraloop anywhere in your house.
Cape Town water tariff and sanitation tariff effective from July 2018.
Even as Cape Town received significant rain over the past few weeks the city is still maintaining water restrictions at level 6b. Residents will have to maintain their lowered water consumption for the conceivable future.
Once the children no longer spend hours a day splashing around in the family swimming pool, one often starts wondering if it is still worthwhile to keep it. The idea of filling it up with dirt and returning it as part of the garden could seem wasteful. What if one could use this storage space as an underground water tank? Couldn’t this be a whole lot more appealing than having several green water tanks littered around the property?
Recycle pool backwash water to the pool. Swimming pools waste on average up to 500 litres of backwash water per week. Aquarista offers an affordable solution to clarify backwash water and return it safely to the pool.
Backwash water from the pool contains toxic chemicals that are environmentally unfriendly. This water is either erroneously wasted to storm water, ending up in rivers and estuaries, or is wasted to sewer placing unnecessary pressure on waste-water treatment plants.
Each year the City of Cape Town updates their annual water and sanitation charges at the start of July. Due to current water scarcity, the City of Cape Town has imposed a 20% water restriction. Below is a breakdown of these charges for single residential homes.
The domestic single residential sanitation tariff remains linked to the water tariff at a rate of 70% of water consumption (70% of 50kl = 35kl). This means that water used for garden irrigation is charged based on 70% of water consumption, even though this water never reaches the waste-water treatment works.