Cape Town Dam Levels Recover to 30% After Higher May Rainfall

(Bloomberg) -- Dam levels in reservoirs serving the drought-hit South African city of Cape Town jumped by 5.8 percentage points last week after rainfall in May exceeded year-earlier figures and as residents continued to endure strict curbs on water use.

The dams were 29.8 percent full as of Monday, compared with 24 percent a week earlier, and 19.6 percent at the same stage in 2017. The level crept up to 30.4 percent on Tuesday, the city said in postings on its website. Three years ago, it was at 79 percent.

May’s rainfall of 216.3 millimeters (8.5 inches) was close to the long-term average, city authorities said in a statement. Residents still aren’t meeting a target of reducing daily consumption to 450 million liters (119 million gallons), using 530 million liters daily last week, an increase of 5 percent on the previous week.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Viljoen in Cape Town at jviljoen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Robert Brand, Pauline Bax

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