Winter rains ease Cape Town’s historic drought as dams fill up

Steady winter rains over the last week have substantially eased Cape Town’s worst drought in a century, replenishing reservoirs for the Western Cape region to levels well above last year’s, officials said on Monday.

Dam levels have risen to 31.5% as of this week compared with just 21% the same time a year ago, said Rashid Khan, regional head at the water and sanitation department.

The drought has ravaged crops, hit tourist numbers and forced changes to consumption habits in Cape Town and surrounding areas as mandatory water restrictions were implemented.

But Khan said the region was not out of the woods yet.

“We urge water users – domestic and industries – to continue using water sparingly,” he said, adding that it was too soon to ease a limit of 50 litres a day for domestic users, which has helped to halve consumption since 2016.

Cape Town, which has some four million inhabitants, gets most of its tap water from dams filled mainly with rainwater. 

Source: moneyweb.co.za