City Continues to Call for Water Savings

"On behalf of the City I appeal to all citizens of Cape Town and visitors alike to make a concerted effort to use water sparingly to keep the overall water consumption low" says Zolile Basholo, Manager, Water Demand Management and Strategy.

In anticipation of projected growth and the long term effects of global warming, the City passed two new by-laws which are aimed to promote permanent good water demand management habits and practices.

The new Water By-law was promulgated in September 2006 in the Provincial Gazette and incorporates most of the restrictive measures introduced during the previous dry spells in the metropole.

Cape Town has approximately 3,2 million residents. This number is expected to grow which could burden the City's already scarce water resources.

The new by-law requires the consumer to adhere to the following:

• No watering of gardens between 10:00 and 16:00
• Hosepipes must be fitted with automatic self-closing devices
• Potable water may not be used to damp building sand and other building material to prevent it from being blown away
• No automatic top up systems using a float valve fed from a potable water source are allowed to supply swimming pools and garden pools
• No person may hose down a hard-surface or paved area using potable water, without prior written notice
• No automatic cistern or tipping tank may be used for flushing a urinal
• Major water users (using more than 3650 Kl per annum), excluding multiple dwellers' units, must undertake an annual water audit
• Commercial car wash industries must re-cycle a minimum of 50% of the water used in their operations
• Water closet cisterns may not exceed 9.5 litres in capacity
• The maximum flow rate from a tap installed in a wash hand basin may not exceed 6 litres per minute
• No person supplied with water in terms of this by-law may sell such water without prior written permission or special agreement
• Any water wastage must be reported immediately to water services technical operations centre

Consumers are reminded to report any water wastage, pollution and any other cases of non-compliance with the new water by-laws to the Water Services Technical Operations Centre on 0860 10 30 54.

Issued by:
Communication and Marketing
City of Cape Town
Tel: 021 400 2201
Fax: 021 957 0023

Media Queries:
Zolile Basholo
Manager: Water Demand Management and Strategy
Tel: 021 590 1497
Cell: 084 747 6677

Sipho Mosai
Director: Water and Sanitation
Tel: 021 400 4859
Cell: 084 780 1638