New water restriction tariffs hit Cape Town: what you need to know

[Stefanmuller]

We were told that we used 13 KL of water last month. This is for a family of three (two adults and a toddler). We live in a duplex in a complex.

This is quite embarassing. We dont ever water our garden with water from the tap, we only ise grey water. We shower once a day and a very small bath for the kid. Still I have tested our water meter and everything seems fine. No leaking when the main tap is closed. No water leakage when main is open and everything else is closed in the house. Filled a 10L bucket with water and the reading increased with 10L so everything is OK.

Since Capetonians werent allowed to water gardens, we have saved bath water to ise that for the garden (one bath per day, filled keeping restrictions in mind, maybe get 3 buckets full). Since December we use the washing machine outlet to fill the sink and then transfer to buckets for the garden. What I have realised is the ige amount of water that a normal washing cycle uses! So basically we have been saving grey water but not really making a difference to water used.

Since about 3 weeks ago we are using buckets in the shower, saving bath and washing machine water, and use that to flush the toilets.

TLTR: washing machines and toilet flushing uses huge amounts of water and things like closing shower while soaping, keeping water in the basin for later washes etc all adds up a lot. Been monitoring the past 3 days and we are averaging 105L per day for the whole house.

 

[C4Cat]

Now there is a fire on Table mountain

 

[genelock]

Now there is a fire on Table mountain

they'll use sea water by helicopters and ol' fashion bush fire beaters

 

[Gordon_R]

Day Zero Plans announced

resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Centre%20Assets/Day%20Zero%20Disaster%20Plan%20FAQs.pdf?ca_source=Website&ca_medium=Website&ca_campaign=Media%20and%20news%20-%20Day%20Zero%20DRM%20FAQs&ca_term=Day%20Zero%20DRM%20FAQs&ca_content=Day%20Zero%20DRM%20FAQs

Can you please shorten the link: http://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media Centre Assets/Day Zero Disaster Plan FAQs.pdf

Useful to have a reference, but says nothing about pressure reduction, and other burning issues...

 

[SauRoNZA]

TLTR: washing machines and toilet flushing uses huge amounts of water and things like closing shower while soaping, keeping water in the basin for later washes etc all adds up a lot. Been monitoring the past 3 days and we are averaging 105L per day for the whole house.

Put some water or cool drink bottles in the toilets.

 

[daveza]

From this point onwards most taps will be shut off so that the last available water in
our dams can be preserved for basic use until we receive rainfall, and until
additional water from aquifers, desalination and recycling schemes can be brought
online.

Which could be a very long time and likely to be insufficient.

What then ?

 

[Zoomzoom]

Absolute rubbish! You are so blinded by your apparent hatred for the DA, that you fail to read things properly anymore. Any logical person can see that what is meant by this statement is that the plans exist and are continually under review.

to be entirely pedantic about the language (and I accept that the person being quoted is quite likely to be unaware of the nuances of English) but this is not how you say that you have a basic plan which is being continually updated to meet changing circumstances. This phrasing is how you say that there was no plan prior to this moment, but the city is, at this current moment, in the process of developing a plan.

 

[Geoff.D]

Only lawyers clutching at straws look for this sort of BS. Ordinary people are more than capable of reading statements within the context of a document.

 

[PeterBee]

TLTR: washing machines and toilet flushing uses huge amounts of water and things like closing shower while soaping, keeping water in the basin for later washes etc all adds up a lot. Been monitoring the past 3 days and we are averaging 105L per day for the whole house.

Just diverted 54 litres output from the washing maching, into buckets. Just never knew it used so much. Well its all going to toilet flushing from now on.

 

[satanboy]

Zille is correct in her response.
If there was no colonization then there would have not been any taps or basins in the first place.
And I don’t think the natives used to bath much in any case.

BS

 

[Stefanmuller]

Just diverted 54 litres output from the washing maching, into buckets. Just never knew it used so much. Well its all going to toilet flushing from now on.

I also never knew. We put the exit water pipe into our kitchen basin, which is a normal size double basin. One wash fills the double basin twice. We can fill 4 buckets with water from there.

In contrast, the bathwater we fill for our kid, which is more than enough to bathe in and wash his hair, barely fills two buckets.

The problem with front loader washing machines is that you cant fill it with grey water or any water other than muncipal water because it feeds itself from the inlet pipe. Unless of course if you have a Jojo tank setup which feeds into the inlet pipe with sufficient pressure.

 

[daveza]

So we were told only hospitals, the CBD and informal settlements would be exluded from day zero.

Now..

JP Smith: Strategic commercial areas, high-density areas with significant risk of increased burden of disease, such as informal settlements, and critical services, such as hospitals, old age homes, prisons, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, clinics, children homes, where possible, will continue to receive drinking water through normal channels.

That last 3.5% is going to be gone a lot quicker, so where does the water come from after that ?

 

[PeterBee]

So we were told only hospitals, the CBD and informal settlements would be exluded from day zero.

Now..



That last 3.5% is going to be gone a lot quicker, so where does the water come from after that ?

3.5% is about 31 500Ml.

Daily requirement:
Informal settlements 60Ml (was about 6% of total daily consumption before restrictions imposed)
Water points 75Ml (3 million x 25l)
CBD & others 50Ml (this is a complete guess)

Total say 200 Ml
Therefore enough for 157 days

Plus the aquifers and desalination projects start rolling from May or June, hopefully. Plus the rains start....

 

[Stefanmuller]

So we were told only hospitals, the CBD and informal settlements would be exluded from day zero.

Now..



That last 3.5% is going to be gone a lot quicker, so where does the water come from after that ?

It is already difficult to find 5L bottles of water in stores, and people are lining up at water shops to fill their bottles for R1/L.

I guess it is a good idea to start stocking up on emergency drinking water. Most people will only use this water for drinking, and wont be using it to bath, do washing or flush the toilet. The average family wont even use 10L per day for just drinking.

So maybe buy like 50 bottles for emergency drinking and then start accumulating a few gerry cans or bigger containers filled with tap water? Of course still trying to stay within the monthly limit. The problem is you cant replace water for washing and bathing etc with store bought water, it is just too expensive. Water you store from the tap will likely not last more than a week and still be safe for drinking. So you could store tap water while it is still available and use for non-drinking purposes? But then you are putting extra strain on the water reserve by using water you dont need (at least not now).

 

[daveza]

3.5% is about 31 500Ml.

Daily requirement:
Informal settlements 60Ml (was about 6% of total daily consumption before restrictions imposed)
Water points 75Ml (3 million x 25l)
CBD & others 50Ml (this is a complete guess)

Total say 200 Ml
Therefore enough for 157 days

Plus the aquifers and desalination projects start rolling from May or June, hopefully. Plus the rains start....

The desal plants give us a huge 16 million liters per day.
The aquifers, 80 million litres per day.

Rains - maybe in June. If it's similar to last year June is all we will get.

But the question was if insufficient rain and the 3.5% is used up where do we then get water from.

Your figure of 200ML usage per day vs 100ML from aquifers and desal.

 

[daveza]

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/water-production-are-cape-towns-desalination-plants-ready-yet/

Cape Town Harbour Desalination Plant: 50% complete
Strandfontein Desalination Plant: 52% complete
Monwabisi Desalination Plant: 54% complete
Cape Flats Groundwater Reclamation Project: 53% complete
Atlantis Groundwater project: 60% complete
Zandvliet Recycled Water: 41% completed

None of these are projected to be complete before the suggested ‘day zero’

 

[PeterBee]

The desal plants give us a huge 16 million liters per day.
The aquifers, 80 million litres per day.

Rains - maybe in June. If it's similar to last year June is all we will get.

But the question was if insufficient rain and the 3.5% is used up where do we then get water from.

Your figure of 200ML usage per day vs 100ML from aquifers and desal.

Latest figure for the aquifers is a lot better than originally anticipated - about 150 Ml per day, although there is no reliable info on when those kick in.

The desalinations - correct, not significant.

Remember that even if rains arrive in June, and rainfall is again (4th consecutive year) around 50 to 60% of normal, dams will recover sufficiently to slowly start supplementing the CoCT augmentation projects.

So the 3.5% provides 4 to 5 months of 200Ml per day, plus the aquifers add up to 150Ml per day at some stage after May, plus rainfall. And engineers and experts will be working flat out investigating every single opportunity to extract every last drop of usable water - at Voelvlei they hope to use even the last 10%. I think South Africans in general will rally to our aid in ways we haven't yet even thought possible.

If rainfall does not recover this year, we will likely face 50l per day restrictions until winter 2019. If SA Weather "Service" shared their (taxpayer financed) rainfall data for 1926 to 1935, we could try and judge the possibility of a prolonged period of below average rainfall, as evidenced by the Steenbras Dam figures for that period.

We can make it, if we achieve the 50l per day and farmers stop irrigating by end Feb.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

So we were told only hospitals, the CBD and informal settlements would be exluded from day zero.

Now..



That last 3.5% is going to be gone a lot quicker, so where does the water come from after that ?

Hmm...I live within 200m of an old age home...wonder if I'll be safe?

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

What we learned from City's #DayZero plans today:

*Location of 200 water collection sites to be released coming week.
*Officials say sites will be shaded, well-manned, secure, close, open for 12hrs, but flexible.
*Plans to send water tankers to old-age homes.

#CPTWaterCrisis

2] What we learned from City's #DayZero plans today:

*Worst-case scenario is "Day Zero" COULD last 3 months.
*Tomorrow municipality's Disaster Operations Centre in Goodwood is officially being "activated".
*City stresses turning off the taps is not inevitable.

#CPTWaterCrisis

3] What we learned from City's #DayZero plans today:

*Capetonians must not stockpile water.
*Water shops selling illegally will be taken to task.
*You won't need to pay, nor provide any accreditation at a water collection point, which may have up to 600 taps.
#CPTWaterCrisis

https://twitter.com/GraemeRauby

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

*Worst-case scenario is "Day Zero" COULD last 3 months.

Jirre, 3 weeks was end of days type bad, can't even picture 3 months :wtf: