Want to save water in Cape Town?
Small habits, repeated by a million households, decide how full the dams are in April.
Small habits, repeated by a million households, decide how full the dams are in April.
Put today's dam level, the restriction level or a water-saving tip on your website or blog. It's free, takes one line of code and updates itself. Prefer to build your own? The same figures are open as JSON.
<script src="https://www.waterdashboard.co.za/widget.js" data-variant="level" async></script>Turn off every tap, read your meter, and read it again in the morning. If it moved, something is leaking.
Less is lost to sun and wind, so the plants get more of every litre.
A cistern that keeps trickling runs day and night. A new washer or flapper is usually all it needs.
A cover stops most of the water a pool loses to evaporation on hot, windy days.
Wet, soap with the tap off, rinse. It's the habit Cape Town leaned on in 2018.
A full load uses about the same water as a half one.
A bucket and cloth instead of a hosepipe, or skip it until the rains.
Turn the tap off while brushing teeth or shaving, then rinse with a cup.
A layer of mulch keeps soil moist for longer, so you water less often.
Collect it in a bucket and use it the same day.
A tank or even a bucket under a downpipe gives you free water for the garden in summer.
No water restrictions have been in effect since 1 November 2020. Permanent water-saving rules under the City's Water By-law still apply.
In effect from 01/11/2020. Source
If this summer goes like the last 25, dams could be about 36% full by 30 Apr (between 33% and 42%).
Summer is when the dams drop. Every litre saved now is still in the dam in April.
Estimate, not a City forecast. It assumes this season goes the way past seasons did.