WWF calls for emergency water-sharing laws in CT

24th January 2018

By: African News Agency

  

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The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Wednesday called for Cape Town to introduce emergency by-laws for groundwater sharing when the city becomes the first in the world to run dry after water restrictions become insufficient amid a three-year drought.

“Life beyond Day Zero will present exceptional circumstances, and we hope that emergency by-laws will be brought in to enable Capetonians to use and share groundwater with neighbours for more uses in order to relieve the burden on the City’s emergency Points of Distribution (PoDs),” WWF said in a press release.

Cape Town last week drastically cut water restrictions again from 87 litres per person per day to 50 litres -- about two-and-a-half standard buckets -- as it continues to struggle with a lack of rains that traditionally filled catchment areas and supplied the city and surrounding areas.

On Tuesday, the city’s deputy mayor Ian Neilson‚ who has taken over management of the water crisis from mayor Patricia de Lille‚ said Day Zero when taps would run dry was coming earlier than expected on 12 April, unless Capetonians reduced their water use immediately by 25%.

Day Zero was previously set at 21 April.

Neilson said only 41% of the city’s occupants were using less than 87 litres of water a day, making the new restrictions from February 1 vital. The region’s dam levels had fallen further over the past week and now stand at a mere 27.2% of capacity.

Edited by African News Agency

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