Water shedding would be ‘last resort’ as dam levels drop
It keeps beating the same drum of consumers being forced to cut back
THE CITY of Cape Town has been left with just over 12% of usable water left in its six major dams collectively, with Theewaterskloof hardest hit by the persistent drought.
Water levels at Theewaterskloof dam dropped to 17% this week while the most full dam was the Upper Steenbras at just under 55%.
Mayor Patricia de Lille’s spokesperson, Zara Nicholson, had previously said water shedding was a last resort and would only be considered when “we get to a really extreme situation”.
Last week the municipality, which has a population of more than 3.7 million, said the “necessary adjustments” were being made to ensure drinking water was treated to acceptable standards as the quality depreciated as a consequence of plummeting dam levels.
Mayco member for water services Xanthea Limberg said one of the reasons the last 10% of a dam’s water could not be extracted, was that it would be difficult to treat to acceptable standards. Limberg added: “Despite the recent rains the situation remains critical, and the city calls on residents to maintain their savings efforts. We thank the many residents who are still active water ambassadors.
“We do, however, need to become more consistent as our consumption remains too high considering the unexpected hot weather which continues and irrespective of the bit of rain that we have had.”
Limberg said the municipality was busy finalising proposals for further intensified water restrictions, which were subject to due process.
“In the meantime, the city continues its plea that residents stop using municipal water for all outside use, including for watering the garden and filling up pools even on the currently allowed watering days,” she said.
“The city is also continuing with extensive pressure reduction programmes to reduce the flow of water at a time, as well as water losses through leakage in the pipework of the distribution system. The regulation of supply is under way in the central, southern and eastern suburbs and within the next week it will be expanded to the northern suburbs.
“Consumers should not be alarmed if they experience very low pressure or if the supply in their area drops away as it will only be temporary until the balance is achieved,” Limberg said.
The Department of Water and Sanitation in the Western Cape said it would continue to monitor the situation. Provincially, dam levels stood at 21% compared to 30.5% the same time last year.
DEAR Cape Argus, honourable mayor Patricia de Lille and councillor Xanthea Limberg, with reference to the front-page article “Mayor tries to allay fears on water crisis” in the Cape Argus (April 19). We all understand the severity of the drought, and we keep on hearing things like “immediate interventions”, “backup plans” and “emergency-supply schemes are being accelerated”. I think it is time for some facts and figures to be put on the table with some definite time lines.
Let’s work against the backdrop of there being three months of usable potable water remaining. That means that if we do not get rain that fills the main dams we will have no water by the end of July. Let’s also remember that the warnings around the water crisis and the step-up in the level of restrictions have been around since last year.
You declared the Western Cape a disaster area on March 5, 2017. I have three questions for you:
How much additional capacity for producing potable water from alternative sources has been installed since January 1?
How much capacity for potable water production from alternative sources has been procured since January 1, and on what date will it be producing water?
Since the declaration of the Western Cape as a disaster area, how much additional potable water production-capacity from alternative sources has been procured, and when will it be producing?
My problem with all the efforts to allay fears is that the onus appears to be entirely on the consumer to cut back, while no additional capacity is being brought on line by the city.
Looking at the maths around a worst-case scenario where we do not get sufficient rain in time and we do run out of water, what is the plan then? If we consider 3.7 million people under your watch, and assume they can get by on two litres of water a day for cooking and drinking (no sanitation) that is 7.4 million litres a day. If a water tanker is 25 000 litres, and it takes a twoday round trip to bring water into the city from elsewhere, you would need around 600 water trucks, a source of water and a plan to distribute the water.
So while in all probability it will rain and we will be all right this year, I’d like to look forward to the end of summer 2018, as the picture then will be a lot more bleak. Consider the graph, which extends the information on your website to next year. The red line is the 10% unusable, the green lines are approximate extrapolations of the trends in low and high reserves.
It can clearly be seen that unless something drastic is done, we will run out of water by this time next year. Of great concern to me is that according to this graph published on the Green Cape website there is no additional water-generation capacity being introduced until 2021.
It needs to be understood why you are not urgently accelerating the three phases of desalination to earlier than 2028. The currently mooted (Argus circa March 24) approximately 2Ml/day system (still to go out on tender) is not even going to provide adequate drinking water for the people of the Western Cape.
So if we look at the main graph of water stored in the major dams, it is clear that this situation of declining reserves has been around since 2014, with nothing being done to increase production. Now that we are nearly at a crisis stage, demandside management is being deployed. I do not believe that you are doing enough to stop the waste of water by some consumers. It would be good to get feedback on the numbers of consumers fined/convicted of high use.
More could be done to encourage households to implement water savings by way of subsidies for alternative water use or grey-water systems. It is clear that high costs and fines are not deterring some, I suggest you implement a maximum water allowance per person, and households that exceed this quota get cut off. Let them feel what it is like to live without water first.
So in summary, we need visibility of concrete plans to increase water-production significantly before the end of summer 2018, and firm, decisive action to be taken against high users.
RM Welsh, of Bergvliet, wrote an open letter to mayor Patricia de Lille and councillor Xanthea Limberg yesterday morning.