Sisa Ntshona said “Day Zero”, the much-publicised date at which water consumption in the Western Cape city will be entirely controlled by local authorities, “can and should be avoided” thanks to newly-imposed measures.
Ntshona told TTG Cape Town was “writing the playbook” for tourism-reliant cities on how to tackle such a problem.
Water usage in the city is limited to 50 litres per person per day, with local authorities advising measures such as taking 90-second showers.
An information website, waterwesterncape.com, also went live last week offering the latest updates to both consumers and travel trade professionals.
Ntshona stressed Day Zero, which is now July 9 rather than the previously forecasted May 11, had been coined to change the behaviours of locals regarding water usage and “should be seen more as a contingency plan”.
“It’s undeniable that there is a water crisis but problems like these are not limited to just Cape Town,” he said. “Sao Paulo, California, Beijing – they all have their own problems, and with climate change things are only going to get worse. Yes we are at the sharp end of it, but we want to lead the way on fixing it.”
Ntshona said the city wanted to reduce water consumption both through changing consumer habits and by developing sustainable water access schemes, such as piping water from nearby areas into Cape Town and opening more dissemination plants, which it is investing in.
According to Ntshona, even during peak visiting periods tourists account for “no more than 1% of Cape Town’s population”, while the number of tourism-dependent jobs in the city is more than 300,000.
“We are very much open for business when it comes to tourism and we don’t want visitors to stay away,” he said. “We want tourists to be part of the solution and help.”
He added that since the water issues had become global news, the number of enquiries and calls from the UK travel trade had increased but the city had not seen cancellations.
