Day Zero in Cape Town, when household taps run dry, has been moved back four days to April 16, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane announced on Tuesday.

Maimane, who was addressing media on efforts by Cape Town and Western Cape authorities and residents to deal with the water crisis, said: "Thanks to the water saving efforts of many Cape Town residents, I can confirm that we have begun to push back Day Zero, which is now 16 April 2018.

"Pushing back Day Zero by four days may not seem like a lot," he added. " But actually it is a significant victory. It shows that residents are coming together and cutting water consumption."

The DA governs at a municipal and provincial level in the Cape.

Consumption has been cut for the past week to 580-million litres a day and to 540-million litres a day for the past few days. Maimane said the progress is great, but the aim is to cut consumption to 450-million litres a day to truly defeat day zero.

"While I celebrate the progress this week, I call on all residents to support the campaign to Defeat Day Zero by cutting their consumption to below 50 litres per person per day," Maimane said.

The DA leader made his contribution to saving water in his own household known and said that he is getting his family down to 40 litres of water per person per day.

He further announced that the City of Cape Town has secured an additional 67-million litres a day for a period of approximately 60 days, which will be commencing in early February. This will be part of the 120-million litre augmentation that was announced last week.

This water will be transferred from the Palmiet-Kogelberg dam which is full due to excellent rainfall.

"This has been a collaborative effort from the farming community of the Elgin-Grabouw valley and the City of Cape Town."

Maimane added: "Drilling work on the Cape Flats Aquifer is being accelerated aggressively, and we will provide more detail on timelines and yields in the coming weeks."

The pressure in high use areas will be reduced by the City in the next coming weeks. "This means that residents will start to experience a noticeable drop in pressure for most of the day, and those in high-lying areas and in apartment blocks may have water service interruption for several hours at a time.

"People should not be alarmed or panic when this happens, and should plan accordingly. This is the planned pressure reduction programme being implemented by the City to reduce consumption, and is part of the plan to ensure that everyone continues to have access to water and to Defeat Day Zero."

The DA leader does not rule out the possibility of day zero hitting Cape Town, but said he believed that with the absolute commitment from everyone it can be prevented.

"It was clear to me that the Day Zero plans were not robust enough and had been poorly communicated. Now our colleagues in the City and Provincial governments are working flat out to ramp up the Day Zero planning and communicate this in good time," said Maimane.