Census data is inaccurate, and you have no concrete figures on the number of people per residence. Even if we had the tech (the new water meters we have are a step in the right direction, except when they break which is often and also maintained by quite a number of different contractors) you'd be hamstrung needing to ascertain correct figures per location. And then throw in all the apartment blocks in Cape Town, which all have a singular water main and meter, it becomes even harder (because do you punish all people in the block because one person is having a bath three times a day).

I hope you find a way to manage (rain, desalination, hopefully something comes online soon)

The local government has sadly mismanaged the situation terribly, for more than a decade. We're not going through a drought, we're experiencing a water shortage. The total population for the City of Cape Town (more than just Cape Town itself, it includes the surrounding areas) has been rapidly expanding over the last 15 years (more so in the last 5) due to semigration (people moving from other provinces, mainly Gauteng, due to the better quality of life in the Cape), and the underlying infrastructure has not been upgraded in step with the population growth. We have had warning since as early as 2007 (from official reports I'm aware of) that we needed to move forward with new water programs including desalination plants in order to accommodate for the growth.

We have a desalination company, GrahamTek [1], which had put forward tenders which could have brought in 450ML water a day within 18 months, but were largely ignored by the powers that be.

[1] https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/city-of-cape-towns-...