Drought the 'new normal' – De Lille

The heavy drought, which has forced disaster declarations across the province, was ‘the new normal’ amid challenging climate change patterns, according to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille. A Cape Argus report notes that, addressing big business on the crisis last week, De Lille reiterated the municipality’s commitment to keeping a full blown water emergency at bay. De Lille said R22m has been allocated for ‘first-line response teams’ in an event of water faults. Another R315m has been budgeted for emergency schemes for three years. ‘Climate change means there is no more normal – we have seen that the rain will not come as it used to with our lowest rainfall on record in 100 years over the past two winters,’ she said. De Lille urged the municipality’s 4m consumers to make ‘a drastic change’ in their water use. The city was also reviewing its 30-year water plan ‘to give greater consideration to climate change,’ the report states.