Western Cape water restrictions unlikely for now: Dept

The Department of Water and Sanitation in the Western Cape says water restrictions in the province are not likely, at least for now.

This despite a decline in dam levels across the province this week, with low rainfall predicted in the coming weeks.

The Western Cape state of dams has recorded a slight decline this week from 80.28% to 80.12%.

The #NCOP Western Cape Provincial Week delegation has today conducted site visits on 3 waste water resource infrastructure projects at Fisher Haven Pump Station, Marlin Rd- Water Pump Station.

The Water Pump Station has been vandalized causing water outage for an extended… pic.twitter.com/Oco0WpQSp8 — Parliament of RSA (@ParliamentofRSA) August 19, 2026 The department has briefed the media in Cape Town on the province’s latest water security outlook .

Head of the Department, Zanele Bila-Mupariwa, says they are confident that the current water levels will be sufficient to meet the demand during the peak summer season.

“As you are aware, the weather service report they have also predicted the low rainfall average rainfall.

So what we are currently doing as the department we are monitoring the system very closely.

The minute we see that it is going to reach a percentage where we have to start the water restrictions, we are definitely going to do so.

But for now we are still in that harvest process as well as hoping that it is going to rain, and also while we are hoping, we are ensuring that water conservation and demand measures are put in place.” VIDEO | Western Cape | Residents urged to use water sparingly: