CAPE TOWN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Friday called for an inquiry into the worsening water crisis in Cape Town.
The party has requested President Jacob Zuma to set up a commission of inquiry into the drought crisis in the city, said Yonela Dika, spokesperson for the ANC in the Western Cape Province.
This came after the city warned on Thursday that the chance of reaching Day Zero when water taps are turned off "is now very likely".
The city urged Capetonians to prepare for the worst scenario when dams supplying water to the city would run dry, the city's taps would be switched off and water would have to be collected from designated points, known as Day Zero which is predicted to come on April 21 this year.
As of Thursday, Cape Town dam levels stood at 28.6 percent.
A series of water-saving measures have taken effect, including limiting daily water usage per person to 50 litres.
The ANC has blamed poor management for the water crisis in the city, administered by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
The ANC says the poor should not pay the price for the water crisis.
"Our view is that according to the research being done by various experts, including the Department of Water and Sanitation, households only consume 12 percent of the water resources. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water resources with 60 percent," Dika said.
Due to strong opposition, the city abandoned a plan to impose a drought levy. But on Friday, the City Council approved a punitive tariff on households for water usage above 6,000 litres per month.
The ANC maintains that the city has failed to act promptly to handle the water crisis until it is too late.
Cape Town, which has been hit by the worst drought in history since 2015, is expected to become the first metropolis in the world to run out of water.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) also criticized the city for poorly managing the deepening crisis.
It is clear that the DA does not have any coherent strategy to deal with this crisis, the SACP said.
City Mayor Patricia de Lille, who currently is embroiled in a corruption scandal, has been sidelined from activities of her own caucus and other party activities, and more recently controversially stripped off her executive powers in relation to the water crisis.
The racially based factional battles inside the DA for control of resources of the city has severely compromised governance and service delivery capacity, the SACP said.
The SACP called on the Special Investigation Unit and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, to investigate the massive corruption and mismanagement in the city.
