Water · Western Cape
Is my water reliable? How much is lost? Is it safe?
Compare all eight metros: Water. An asterisk marks a figure our automated checks found inconsistent with another official figure; it is shown as reported, explained in a footnote and left out of rankings.
Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025 · Data as of General Household Survey 2025
95 000
households in Cape Town told Stats SA their water had been cut for 48 hours or more at a time in the past year, out of about 1 469 000 households.
Stats SA: “a smaller percentage of households in metropolitan areas reported water interruptions (30,0% compared with 37,6%). Water interruptions were most common in eThekwini (43,9%), which is almost six time more common than in the City of Cape Town (7,8%).”
Cut 2+ days: households that answered yes to a water cut of 48 hours or more at a time, in thousands as Stats SA prints them (Table 2.8: Water and sanitation variables by metro); all households from Table 3.7. A sample survey. Sources: GHS 2025: selected development indicators, metros (P0318.3); the quotation is from the main GHS 2025 release (P0318), section 9.3. For cuts happening now, see the city’s notices and community reports.
Official: audited annual financial statements · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited statements) · Next update expected Jan 2027 (2025-26 annual reports) · Last updated
Water a metro buys or purifies but never bills: leaks, burst pipes, illegal connections and faulty meters. Treasury’s norm is 15% to 30%.
Not yet published
Treasury norm: 15% to 30%
Share of water bought or purified that is lost before it is sold.
Source: Cape Town’s audited annual financial statements.
Official: DWS weekly State of Reservoirs, copied 10 Oct 2026 · Data as of see the copy date · Updates: DWS publishes weekly; we copy by hand
75%
full: the Cape Town (Western Cape Water Supply System), Cape Town’s main water supply system. Last week 76%; a year ago 91%.
DWS: these summaries cover only the dams in its State of Reservoirs report. Several metros share a system: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni all draw mainly on the Integrated Vaal River System. Each metro’s main system is confirmed from its own documents (source). The DWS site refuses automated requests, so these figures are copied by hand from its summary pages each week (copied 10 Oct 2026; the report’s own date was not copied). Source: DWS, weekly summary by water supply system.
Official: City of Cape Town · Data as of week of 5 Oct 2026 · Updates: weekly · Last updated
75.3%
full on 5 Oct 2026, against 91.2% at the same time last year. The six major dams of the Western Cape Water Supply System changed -0.8% in a week. The City’s water status: Drought Response.
Water used: 891 million litres a day, about 152 litres per person a day (the City’s estimate for Cape Town).
The system also supplies neighbouring municipalities and farms. Source: City of Cape Town, Weekly Water Dashboard (pages 1 and 2) · This week’s dam levels. We keep each week’s report; the history starts on 5 Oct 2026.
Official: City of Cape Town, Coastal Water Quality Dashboard · samples to 15 Jul 2026 · Data as of samples to 15 Jul 2026 · Updates: the City publishes reports a few times a year · Last updated
64 of 72
recreational sampling sites met the national guideline (Sufficient or better) over the past 12 months. 8 were rated Poor. All were green (no action needed) at their last sample.
Categories are the City’s, worked out from enterococci counts against the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Coastal Marine Waters, Vol 2: Recreational Use (2012): Excellent and Good are low risk; Sufficient is the minimum acceptable; Poor means a higher risk of illness from swimming. Current status: green means no action needed; amber, a high single result; red alert, two high results in a row. Winter samples are fewer. Source: City of Cape Town, coastal water quality report (all results).
Official: City of Cape Town, media releases · Data as of see each notice’s date · Updates: checked daily · Last updated
61 water interruption notices from Cape Town since 1 Jan 2025; 61 named places we could match to wards.
Places are matched by their Stats SA Census 2011 names, longest name first, with no guessing; a name we cannot match is listed for checking and not linked to a ward. Notices before 1 Jan 2025 are not included. Where a metro publishes no notices, residents can report an outage (community reports, unverified).