Dam levels at 18.6%, 103 days of usable water left
DAM levels are effectively at about 18.6%, with approximately 103 days of usable water left at current consumption levels, the City says.
Consumption over the past week reached 750 million litres daily of the collective usage target of 700 million litres a day.
In a statement, the City said the two consecutive years of drought had severely reduced stream flows into the dams of the Western Cape Water Supply Scheme.
The dams are likely to reach extremely low levels by the onset of winter and are unlikely to recover satisfactorily should average to below average rainfall be experienced over the winter.
The City’s contingency plans include further intensified restriction measures and the possibility of intermittent supply to conserve available water should dams drop to dangerous level, which would require emergency procurement of additional equipment and involve increased operational expenditure.
As a further mitigation measure in the short to medium term, the City intends accelerating its water resource augmentation programme to increase water supplies.
The City is now considering the construction of various small-scale emergency water supply schemes to increase supplies in the short term, including:
Emergency drilling of boreholes into the Table Mountain Group Aquifer with a yield of approximately 2 million litres a day.
A small-scale desalination package plant, located along Cape Town’s north-western coastline with a yield of approximately 2 million litres a day.
Intensifying the City’s pressure management and water demand management programmes to further reduce water demand.
The capital costs of the emergency schemes are currently estimated at R315 million over three financial years (2016/17 to 2018/19).
The City’s Water and Sanitation Department will be funding these projects primarily via internal re-prioritisation.
As the globe marks World Water Day today, the World Water Council (WWC) says 319 million, or 32%, of sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to safe drinking water.
WWC president Benedito Braga said: “There is an absolute necessity to increase water security in order to overcome the challenges brought on by climate change and human influence.”