The City of Cape Town on Monday announced that dam levels feeding the city had improved to 70 percent of storage capacity over the past week.

The announcement came as Cape Town and surrounding areas experienced further heavy rainfall overnight Sunday and into Monday, with further rainfall predicted Tuesday and Wednesday. 

In a statement, the City said the average water consumption for the previous week had also declined from 526-million to 505-million litres per day.

Last week, the City announced that it would lower water restrictions and tariffs from Level 6 to Level 5 from October 1 due to the encouraging dam recovery and the ongoing water conservation efforts by Capetonians.

“As usage has never reached the target of 450-million under Level 6b restrictions and has hovered around 500-million litres per day, which is the target for Level 5 restrictions, the City decided to lower the restriction and tariff to Level 5. This will provide some financial relief to water users and this should reflect in the October municipal accounts,” the City said.

“Tariffs are based on consumption, thus lower usage leads to lower costs.”

The City further encouraged residents to continue conserving water to ensure that Cape Town’s dams recover adequately for the summer months ahead.

Earlier this year Cape Town faced the possibility of running out of water as the five main feeder dams into the metro was at dangerously low levels.