Water plans behind schedule

FIVE of the City’s seven major water augmentation plans, including the completion of the V&A Waterfront Desalination plant and the harnessing of the Cape Flats Aquifer, are behind schedule.

Day Zero – the day the City will turn off most taps – has also been moved closer by two days, marked May 18, 2018.

Day Zero will come when dam levels reach 13.5%. At this stage residents will have to collect water daily from around 200 collection sites across the city.

The City’s dam levels are now at 34.2%, down from 35.1% last week.

The City’s overall progress on securing alternative water sources is at 50%, according to its Water Dashboard.

Cape Town Harbour and Monwabisi desalination developments are listed as on schedule. The Strandfontein and V&A Waterfront desalination projects, the Cape Flats and Atlantis ground water projects, and the Zandvliet water recycling plant are listed as behind schedule.

The City has previously indicated that the V&A Waterfront project is slightly behind schedule because it was added to the water resilience programme more recently than the rest. Water and waste services Mayco member Xanthea Limberg, however, said the City is fast-tracking the design and procurement process, and is optimistic that the scheme can start delivering water into the system by March.

On reasons for the other delays, Mayor Patricia De Lille’s spokesperson, Zara Nicholson, yesterday said: “These are not material delays but reflect part of normal project processes. We remain confident that the projects will be on track.”

De Lille yesterday said consumption has once again increased to dangerous levels, from an average of 611 million litres per day last week to an average of 628 million litres per day this week, while the daily demand spiked to 694 million litres.

“This means that many people have relaxed their water-saving efforts or, worse still, are ignoring the restriction measures. According to the latest consumption levels, only 37% of residents are using less than 87 litres per person per day. This has decreased from 40% of residents last week,” she said.

“The City has committed to doing everything it can to bring additional water online, but we can only beat this drought if residents keep saving. Even when new projects start yielding additional water, residents must not let up on saving water as it will take a few years for us to recover from the drought.’’

De Lille yesterday also shared her water bill for the last three months with social media users.

“We are three adults in my household. In September we used 83.3 litres per person per day, in October our consumption was 86 litres per person per day, and in November we reduced our water consumption to 80.3 litres per person per day,” she said.

The City is also hopeful that the implementation of level 6 water restrictions, kicking in from January 1, will strengthen conservation efforts.

Residential units consuming more than 10 500 litres a month will be prioritised for enforcement; residents should keep their water usage to 87.5 litres a day; non-residential properties are to reduce consumption by 45% and agricultural users are to reduce consumption by 60%; and the use of borehole water for outdoor purposes is discouraged in order to preserve groundwater resources.

Dr Kevin Winter, of UCT’s Future Water Institute, said: “This is a very ambitious project. We mustn’t underestimate the scale and difficulty in bringing online new projects like these, particularly projects at this level.

“The procurement process is an extremely complex matter, we’re not only looking at the technology, but land ownership and legal arrangements.”