To help save water, Executive Mayor Helen Zille had a new City water management device installed in her home this week. The device provides a specific daily amount of water to her household.
So far, the devices have been installed in over 30 000 homes throughout Cape Town free of charge (on a voluntary basis, and after consultation with owners) to help residents avoid running up huge bills through excessive use or leaks. They are set
to switch on at a fixed time every morning and only switch off once the household has used its set quota of water for the day.
If households use less than their quota in a day the amount that isn't used is carried over to the next day. For example, if only 250 litres are used in one day, the balance of 100 litres is carried over to the next day, giving the household a total of 450 litres for that day.
The device ensures that households receive their free 6 000 litres of water per month, and also allows them to increase this to an additional amount according to what they commit to paying.
Every year, the City spends R310 million on free water for residents. Every person gets a minimum of 44 litres per day free of charge (this figure is based on an estimated average household of eight people). National legislation requires that each person gets a minimum of 25 litres per person per day. Where more people live in a household, the amount of free water is increased accordingly. For residents on the City's indigency database, the free amount of water is increased to 10 000 litres per month.
The devices will replace the current ‘trickle system’ that is used for debt management. So far, they have already helped the City save 156 000 000 litres of water worth R519 000 every month.
The City also writes off any water bill arrears that indigent people may have if they remain within their quota and pay for any extra water use for a sustained period of 6 months.