Announcement from Jaques Fouche, SAACI Western Cape Chair:
As you are aware by now, the water crisis in Cape Town has worsened dramatically since December. This, despite efforts by residents to lower their water consumption from a peak of 1200Ml/day to around 600ML/day at the moment.
SAACI Western Cape has been in constant collaborations with the Joint Association (JAMMS) partners and the relevant authorities regarding this. Following numerous discussions, herewith a single statement for the travel & tourism trade and our representatives abroad to communicate to tourists and all intending to travel to Cape Town and the Western Cape. The script is consistent with the City’s messaging to drive behaviour change by locals, but reassures that we are open for tourism.
Last week the major tourism bodies including SATSA, FEDHASA Cape, SAACI and Cape Town Tourism got together with the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Provincial Government and Wesgro to develop a targeted statement and answers to “Frequently Asked Questions” that we have been receiving from concerned inbound tourists and the travel trade.
For details about this single message, please click here.
The important thing to note, however, is that “Day Zero” is avoidable if all Capetonians reduce their water usage to under 50 litres per day.
In addition, the City is putting further measures in place to reduce demand. These include:
- The introduction of punitive tariffs from 1 February 2018 to target water abusers
- Further demand management devices & flow restrictors
- More aggressive pressure management that may result in disrupted supply
These updates include:
1. A new Water Outlook 2018 Report from the City
The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Department last week released a 5-page Water Outlook 2018 Report – click here for more details. It contains a detailed update on current water system status including the latest water system figures, recent water consumption trends, as well as the key risks to maintaining water levels.
2. Updated Dashboards from the City
Details on the summary dashboard is available here: http://coct.co/water-dashboard/ and in an additional dashboard, updated weekly, with more detail on individual dams here: http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review/damlevels.pdf
3. Business Continuity Plans
As far as your business is concerned, if you would like assistance with your Business Continuity Plan then GreenCape has a helpful set of services here: https://www.greencape.co.za/content/focusarea/drought-business-support
4. Forthcoming piece from Premier Helen Zille
Premier Helen Zille will be publishing an update, where she considers the questions: “when Day-Zero arrives, how do we make water accessible and prevent anarchy? And if there is any chance of still preventing it, what is it we can do?”
Please click here to download the full update.
So, please note that we are in constant contact with the relevant authorities and we will advise all our members, just as soon as we have this information at hand.
PLEASE NOTE: For any further queries, please email the dedicated email address: water@wesgro.co.za & c/c wc.za@saaci.org.
