CAPE TOWN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A South African municipality started Monday to impose cutbacks in water use in several towns as local reservoirs are running dry amid severe drought.
From Monday onwards, a six-hour daily water outage would be implemented for seven days a week in the towns of Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp and the Greater St Francis Area in Kouga Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province.
The water rationing came after Impofu Dam, one of the local reservoirs, dried up.
The municipality said the affected areas now "rely almost entirely" on Churchill Dam, where the water level has dropped below 10 percent.
It also predicted that the region's taps could run dry within next three weeks if no rain falls in the catchment area of the Churchill Dam.
Earlier this month, Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu said that his ministry will intervene in the ongoing "severe water shortages," appointing a water services utility as an agent for implementation. ■