Watering a lawn under Cape Town restrictions
Read the tariff before costing a lawn. Cape Town prices water in rising blocks, so garden watering lands in the expensive blocks on top of household use rather than at the cheap base rate.
A 100 square metre lawn needs roughly 25 000 litres a month through a Cape summer. That is the volume that pushes a household up a block.
What the 2018 restrictions taught
Level 6B restrictions banned garden watering with municipal water outright. Lawns across the metro died that summer, and many were never replaced. The restriction ended. The memory of it is what still drives most enquiries for turf.

Waterwise alternatives, honestly
- Indigenous planting. Cheapest, lowest water, no lawn surface to use.
- Gravel and paving. Cheap, hot, and hard underfoot.
- Artificial grass. Dearest up front, no water, usable surface.
- Borehole and real lawn. Viable where a borehole already exists.
Compare the numbers on artificial grass against a real lawn.
