Today’s post a huge step away from what I usually post on the blog. With the current water crisis in the Western Cape – writing a beauty or fashion post seems rather irrelevant because we all know that WATER IS LIFE. Cape Town is definitely the heartbeat of this blog and when mayor Patricia de Lille wants to declare the city an emergency disaster area, it is definitely time to realise how serious this problem is and what the consequences really are.On Monday the list of Cape Town’s top 100 water consumers was revealed with the person in the number one position showing a consumption of 702 000L of water used in January. By Tuesday the Haywood Road, Crawford resident had reported an underground leakage which he now has to pay the hefty bill and repairs. The problem with an underground leakage is that people don’t even know that they have it. The easiest way to detect it is to turn off the water meter to see if it is still running, and if it is then you most likely have an underground leakage – also, check your water bills regularly.

Where to get water without lowering dam levels:Recently I discovered a place out in Newlands where the public can collect spring water at Newlands Brewery. The water runs freely from the mountain slopes and it never stops. It is open to the public free of charge from 6am to 9pm daily at the Newlands Spring Bulk Water Collection Point (I will insert a map down below). I would really urge all of you to go down to Newlands and collect some water as the water just runs away as there is no stopping the free flow of the water. By doing this we are preventing some strain on our dam levels as we are only left with 121 days of water left (33%) which is diminishing at such a vast rate as the dam levels are down by 1.5% just a week ago. All you have to do is take your containers (as much as you want) and fill them up. The hours are even convenient so there really is no excuse why we all can’t try even a little bit to save some water. Besides trying to save water, the pure mountain water is so refreshing and cold it really does make you appreciate water just a little more.It is said that the dam level out at Theewaterskloof dam is now at 33% and that the last 10% of the water is not usable. Winter is a really long time away and matters are critical now. If people don’t start saving water drastically, they are forcing the city to push up water prices by at least 50%. Money that a lot of people don’t have. The average South African household uses up to 250 litres of water a day (7 500 litres a month), let’s all try and improve on that figure.

Thank you for reading my post. If you have any question feel free to pop me a comment and I will try and answer it. Below I have a few tips on how to conserve water.

Put a bucket in the shower to catch water.

If it’s yellow, let it mellow.

 Turn the tap off when washing hair, brushing teeth or hands.

Fix your leaks.

Reuse pasta making or rice boiling water.

Keep an eye on your bill to spot leaks.

Reuse grey water.

Update: Since drafting this post in February, the rules of the water collection point in Newlands have changed slightly. Due to the high volumes of visitors now and also people selling the water, you are only allowed to get 25L of water at a time. You can however stand in the queue again to get another 25L. There is also an express water collection point for those that has smaller containers. Everything is still 100% free but parking may be a bit of a challenge.