Prompted by a prolonged drought, the City of Cape Town is planning to move to level three water restrictions which include banning the use of sprinklers and hosepipes, a council statement said on Tuesday.

A report on the planned move will be presented to a council meeting scheduled for October 26 for further deliberation.

A tariff increase could come into effect with the tighter restrictions from 1 December.

The following rules will apply:

Watering or irrigation with municipality-supplied drinking water will only be allowed for lawns, landscaping, flower beds, vegetable gardens, sports fields, parks and other open spaces if a bucket or water container is used.

“No use of hosepipes or automatic sprinkler systems is allowed,” the city said.

Cars and boats can only be washed with water from buckets and manual topping up of swimming pools is only allowed if the pools have a pool cover. “No automatic top-up systems are allowed.”

The price per kilolitre (kl) of water will also go up once the resident’s use for the month exceeds certain levels.

As an example it said the first 6kl of water (Step 1) is free, up to 10,5kl each kl will cost R16,54 (Step 2). After 10,5kl, but before 20kl (Step 3) will cost R23,54 per kl and after 20kl but before 35 kl each (Step 4) will cost R40,96 etc.

This was introduced because Cape Town residents as a whole did not achieve the consistent 10% reduction in water from 1 January 2016, the city said.

The council asked that residents check for domestic cluster rates if they live in a flat or a complex supplied by a single meter or if the commercial or backyarder tariff applies to them.