CAPE TOWN, March 7 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Cape Town city has managed to push back "Day Zero," the day when water taps would turn off in 2018, authorities said Wednesday.
Thanks to steady drop in water consumption, the city was able to push back Day Zero by days, and then weeks, and then months, said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) that administers the city.
"I am therefore happy to announce today that provided we continue consuming water at current levels, and we receive decent winter rainfall this year, Day Zero will not occur in 2018," Maimane told a press briefing in Cape Town.
The city previously announced April 21 as Day Zero and later changed the date to April 12.
With a population of about 6 million, Cape Town has been hit by the worst drought in history. If Day Zero arrives, the city would be the world's first metropolis to run out of water.
Water consumption now sits at between 510 and 520 million litres per day, down from almost 1.2 billion litres in February 2015, according to Maimane.
Individuals, families, communities, businesses, private dam owners and many others have joined in the water-saving campaign, Maimane said.
However, he cautioned that while it is now unlikely to occur in 2018, Day Zero is still a very real possibility during the 2019 summer months if there is no significant rainfall this winter.
"I want to reiterate, and can not stress enough, that we need to keep at current consumptions levels until at least after the winter rainfall," he said.
Capetonians must continue to use less than 50 litres of water per day in line with Level 6B water restrictions so that Day Zero can be defeated in its entirety, Maimane said.
Maimane also announced that through augmentation projects, the city will be adding an additional 190 million liters of water per day to the supply system by the end of this year, growing to 220 million liters in 2019 and eventually reaching 300 million liters in 2020.
