cape town’s winter rainy season
The winter rainfall region of the South Western Cape has
The city was able to avoid Day Zero – but only through
had, as a result of climate change, a later onset of the rains
a combination of aggressive water conservation and
in more recent years. This results in a longer dry season.
efficiency campaigns, and increased rainfall from 2018.
The City of Cape Town and the National Department of Water and Sanitation measure dam levels to check how
Current Dam Water Levels - 2/8/2021
much water is available for the region and whether water
Major dams Storage %:
restrictions are necessary for residents and businesses. The
August 2021 compared to August 2017
dam levels are critical for Cape Town’s water supply.
Berg River: 100.5% vs. 42.7% Steenbras Lower: 88.4% vs. 29.5%
The dams in and around Cape Town form part of the
Steenbras Upper: 83.3% vs 82.5%
Western Cape Water Supply System, which is an integrated
Theewaterskloof: 102.0% vs. 21.6%
and collectively managed system of dams, pump stations,
Voëlvlei: 86.4% vs. 21.9%
pipelines, and tunnels. In addition to servicing Cape Town,
Wemmershoek: 97.3% vs. 37.6%
the system supplies water to towns in the Overberg, Boland,
Overall Storage: 97.5% vs. 28.2%
West Coast, and Swartland areas, and provides irrigation water for agriculture.
Because each dam size is different, the best indicator of overall dam water levels is the total quantity stored
Most of Cape Town relies on dams to supply the city with
expressed as a percentage of total dam capacity. This
water. Three years of inadequate rainfall caused dam levels
statistic is shown in the bottom line of the table.
to fall to 25% of capacity by late January 2018, and water was expected to drop to the critical 13.5% of capacity by April 12, 2018. At that critical point, water would only be supplied to critical services such as hospitals, and municipal taps would be shut off. Residents would be forced to line up for daily water rations of 25 litres per person at one of 200 collection points. Day Zero was defined as the point at which stricter regulations would begin because defining Day Zero at 0% capacity would only prompt action from residents when it was too late.
8
l Hello Cape Town August 2021
