Cape Town Water Crisis Eases as Residents Curb Consumption
- Supply cuts set to be delayed, opposition leader Maimane says
- Situation is still critical, usage restrictions to remain
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The risk that the drought-hit city of Cape Town will run out of water well before the start of the winter rainy season has eased after residents heeded a call to slash consumption and the government curtailed supply to farmers.
The authorities in South Africa’s second-biggest city said earlier this week that they expected “Day Zero” -- when taps would be turned off to residential suburbs -- would be reached on April 16 unless daily usage was reduced by 20 percent to 450 million liters (119 million gallons). The city’s 4 million residents have been limited to using 50 liters of water each a day as of Thursday, down from a previous allocation of 87 liters.