Oudtshoorn Municipality declared a local state of disaster due to a water crisis in the town.

The declaration comes as the municipality had realised that water inflow into the Raubenheimer Dam was less than outflow, Mayor Colan Sylvester explained to News24 on Friday.

“With the summer slowly approaching, Oudtshoorn Municipality has also realised that water consumption will increase and inflow into the dam is less than the outflow…,” he said.

He said dam levels were at 30.7%.

The Raubenheimer Dam reportedly has only enough water for the next 160 days before it reaches the surface water in the dam, which is unusable.

Sylvester added that the South African Weather Service also predicted that there would be abnormally high temperatures and less rain over the next six months.

“We will be having water restrictions soon and also go out on a communications strategy to take the community with, by keeping them abreast of the crisis. We will also focus on water-saving measures and encourage residents to use grey water to water their gardens,” he said.  

Sylvester said the municipality was appealing to residents to use water sparingly and to immediately report any leakages.

“We also urge residents to rather take showers [instead of] using bath tubs, and [to] try to keep their water usage to 75 litres per person per day,” Sylvester said.

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