Chaos in the national Department of Water and Sanitation and the resulting delays in new water projects could have a severe negative effect on the economic growth of Cape Town and the Western Cape.

And the City is already under huge pressure through having to re-purpose its own‚ relatively small‚ rates-derived budgets to fund infrastructure and services that should be the responsibility of national government.

These warnings came from Cape Town Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson and Safety and Security mayoral committee member JP Smith on Thursday during a media update on Day Zero projections and the City’s water programmes.

Neilson announced that water consumption over the past week had averaged 516 megalitres per day (MLD) and that dam levels had dropped 0.4% to 24%.