The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee has approved the creation of 43 temporary and eight permanent positions to ensure a timeous roll-out of the City’s emergency water augmentation projects. Read more below:
The approval of new positions aims to address the staff requirements for water resilience projects such as desalination (marine-, barge- and land-based), water reclamation, spring water and aquifer extraction.
The City is designing and developing a set of criteria to bring the necessary and required skills on board. All applicants will be subjected to the same criteria and human resources processes as prescribed by law.
In terms of the roll-out the City’s emergency water augmentation projects, approximately 20 tenders will be finalised and issued for the various required schemes over the next few weeks and months.
‘We are committed to ensuring that Cape Town gets through this tough time with these short-term emergency supply schemes as well as getting consumption down to 500 million litres of water per day. Every bit of experience that we build up now will stand us in good stead as we try to adapt to prolonged drought conditions as part of our New Normal approach to the unpredictability of climatic conditions,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services; and Energy, Councillor Xanthea Limberg.
The City ask residents to reduce water flow on their property through adjusting their private stopcocks or water control taps.
How to adjust a stopcock to reduce water flow (this should ideally be done during the day):
- Close the stopcock by turning it in a clockwise direction, and open it again (about a half turn)
- Go to the tap furthest away from the stopcock (this could be inside the house, in the back garden/yard or in an upstairs bathroom)
- Open the cold water tap and see if there is sufficient water flowing
- If required, adjust the stopcock a half turn at a time until a reasonable but reduced flow rate of water to the furthest cold water tap is achieved
For a video illustrating how to adjust a stopcock, please watch this video clip.
For information on how to meet the 87-litre per day usage requirement, residents should please visit the water restrictions page on the City’s website: www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater and utilise our water calculator: http://bit.ly/ThinkWaterCalculatorCT
Residents can contact the City via email to water@capetown.gov.za for queries about the water pressure reduction, or to report contraventions of the water restrictions (evidence should be provided to assist the City’s enforcement efforts), or they can send an SMS to 31373. Residents can also now report water faults by sending a message via WhatsApp to 063 407 3699.
Water supplied by the City remains safe to drink and is tested in accordance with safety standards.