2015-present Cape Town drought

The city of Cape Town has been experiencing a drought since 2015 when water storage in the city's dam levels began to drop, declining from 71.9% full in 2014 to 50.1% in 2015. By the end of May 2017 the drought was declared the city's worst in a century, with dams and reserves having less than 10 percent of their usable capacity. Significant droughts in other parts of South Africa also occurred at the same time but ended in August 2016 following a period of heavy rain and flooding in the interior of the country.

In June 2017 a significant storm hit the area dropping up to 50 mm of rain. This did not manage to break the drought. The highest level water restrictions, Level 5, was declared by local government on the 3rd September 2017. This was done as part of the City of Cape Town's efforts to reduce water consumption to 87 litres per person or a total water consumption rate of under 500 million litres per day.

Three identified causes of the drought are the El Niño weather pattern,climate change, and increased water demand due to population growth. Since 1995, Cape Town's population has grown from 2.4 million residents to an estimated 4.3 million by 2018 representing a 55% population increase in 23 years whilst dam water storage only increased by 15% in the same period.

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