CAPE TOWN - Tsogo Sun Holdings Ltd. has been reported to be building a desalination plant that will help supply its Cape Town hotels with their own water.
This move will protect the companies guests from the Cape Town's hard-hitting drought.
According to Bloomberg, Tsogo chief operating officer Ravi Nadasen told reporters in a media briefing held in Johannesburg on Wednesday that the alternative source should be in operation for properties including the five-star Westin by early March at the latest.
The city of Cape Town has recently announced that Day Zero has been pushed to May 11. This is the scheduled date when the city will have be forced to turn off the taps at some residential suburbs.
Nadasen also said, "There is a plan in place that all of the alternative water sources will come on board before Day Zero comes. The current situation in Cape Town is going to become the new normal. We’ve got to be responsible as well".
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While hotels are bracing themselves for the possibility of Day Zero, Africa’s biggest tourist destination is trying to keep water running as long as possible after a three-year drought all but exhausted local reservoirs. Cape Town’s 4 million citizens have been urged to use as little as possible, with the daily allocation set at 50 liters (13 gallons) per person, and hotels have removed bath plugs and urged visitors to keep toilet flushing to a minimum, Bloomberg reported.
During the briefing, Tim Harris, chief executive officer of city tourism and trade promotion agency Wesgro said, "Day Zero won’t apply everywhere, and the city is working to ensure that water continues to flow in areas with a high concentration of jobs".
The city has been urging residents to use 50 litres or less per person, per day in an endavour to avoid Day Zero.
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The inter-ministerial task team on drought and water scarcity has Thursday morning released the outcomes of its meeting which was held on January 30, 2017. The task team reported that all Cape Provinces still remain gripped by the drought situation, these include Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape - currently declared disaster areas and some parts of the KwaZulu Natal and Free State.
Here are nationaI dam leve as of January 07, 2018, according to the IMTT:
Province
Dam Levels as at 07th
Dam Levels last week
Eastern Cape
60,7%
59,9%
Gauteng
94,6%
95,0%
Free State
64,9%
64,4%
Mpumalanga
76,9%
76,8%
KwaZulu-Natal
52,6%
50,8%
North West
67,4%
66,6%
Northern Cape
76,2%
80,5%
Limpopo
65,3%
64,4%
Western Cape
23,7%
24,5%
National
59,6%
58,8%
An amount of R74.8 million was given to the Western Cape Province in August 2017 to deal with the situation.