The Western Cape Government has appealed to residents who would be heading to the Southern Cape this festive season, not to waste water.

The drought-stricken Eden District has been declared a disaster area.

Dam levels have continued to drop, while little rain has been forecast for the coming months.

MEC for Local Government and Environmental Affairs, Anton Bredell has called on residents and visitors to be frugal.

"You can't communicate enough to the public, especially tourists. When you tour an area, when you're on holiday you tend to forget these important things. So we will with the municipalities, will help communicate it, and ask them to step in and help and take our hands, because if we don't, they definitely will run out of water."

The Regional Water Affairs Department's Chief Director, Rashied Khan explained that most of the water residents consumed was either flushed down the toilet, or used to irrigate gardens.

"Drinking water is just a small part of water use. Thirty percent of normal household water is for garden use, which we must cut down. The other third of the water is flushed down, which is very sad. Good clean water, the best water in the world, in terms of the 13 other countries that have very high standards of drinking water. We want to cut down flushing those down the toilet."

Do you think iafrica.com is an awesome website? More importantly, do you want to win a five-day holiday for two in Mombasa? If so, vote for iafrica.com in Bizcommunity's The People's Choice award and stand a chance of winning this fabulous prize. To vote, sms 'WEB j' to 34419. Smses cost R2.