Our new normal water use in Cape Town's drought
by Diana
Studer - gardening for biodiversity in Cape Town, South Africa
We watch the clouds and check weather forecasts till we find one which says - rain. Dam levels on 19th June at 23% (but then minus the inaccessible bottom 10%) The city's target is 600 megalitres a day, but YAY rain has tipped the city's consumption to 640 Ml/d sadly. Level 4 water restrictions.
From the 1st of July we will be paying for the 6 kilolitres we now get free. We are encouraged to use less than one hundred litres a day per person (wherever we are, home, work, school, shopping) Next target 80 litres a day!
We began with storing my bath water overnight. Bad start as we promptly realised that my bath would become a quick shower. In March before the autumn rain, we kept the washing machine water - to flush the loo, and to water the garden.
We have a basin in the kitchen sink to catch the cleanish water from washing fruit and veg to top up the summer pond.
We have a covered patio, about 10 square met…
We watch the clouds and check weather forecasts till we find one which says - rain. Dam levels on 19th June at 23% (but then minus the inaccessible bottom 10%) The city's target is 600 megalitres a day, but YAY rain has tipped the city's consumption to 640 Ml/d sadly. Level 4 water restrictions.
From the 1st of July we will be paying for the 6 kilolitres we now get free. We are encouraged to use less than one hundred litres a day per person (wherever we are, home, work, school, shopping) Next target 80 litres a day!
We began with storing my bath water overnight. Bad start as we promptly realised that my bath would become a quick shower. In March before the autumn rain, we kept the washing machine water - to flush the loo, and to water the garden.
We have a basin in the kitchen sink to catch the cleanish water from washing fruit and veg to top up the summer pond.
We have a covered patio, about 10 square met…
