Cutting 10% at home without noticing
Cape Town’s average is about 152 litres per person a day. The City asks for 10% less. Here is where it goes.
The City’s dashboard puts average use at about 152 litres per person per day. A 10% saving is roughly 15 litres per person, or 60 litres a day for a household of four. That is about one bath.
Showers: a standard shower uses 10 to 15 litres a minute. Cutting two minutes a day saves 20 to 30 litres per person. A low-flow showerhead roughly halves the flow.
Toilets: an older cistern uses 9 to 12 litres a flush, a dual-flush about 3 to 6. If you cannot replace it, a filled bottle in the cistern saves a litre or two every flush.
Leaks: a dripping tap wastes tens of litres a day and a running toilet hundreds. Read your water meter before bed and again in the morning with everything off; if it moved, you have a leak.
Garden and pool: water early or late, mulch beds, and keep the pool covered. Evaporation from an uncovered pool in a Cape summer can run to hundreds of litres a week. Follow your municipality’s rules if restrictions are in force.
Use the water budget tool on the Dams page to see what a 10% cut means for your household.