Water situation remains murky in Western Cape
WHILE a weekly report by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) indicated a significant improvement in the past two weeks in most provinces including Kwazulunatal, the situation remains gloomy in the Western Cape.
But the City of Cape Town has plans to ensure water augmentation comes online to supplement the declining supply, with the V&A Waterfront desalination plant expected to go online next week.
The city invested R1.4 billion during the 2017/2018 financial year for water augmentation, while it has budgeted just over R2bn for the next financial year.
Last year, the city received about R20.8 million from the National Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) for emergency disaster relief.
Xanthea Limberg, mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services and energy, said it is in the process of receiving a further R100m from the department.
To date, she said it had not received a cent from the national DWS for any bulk water supply systems – including desalination plants.
However, DWS spokesperson Sputnik Ratua disagreed. He said the DWS is paying for the drilling at Table Mountain Group Aquifers.
Limberg said this is not the case as some of the money came from Cogta and the rest from the city’s budget.
Ratua also said DWS is paying for the drilling at the Atlantis Aquifer which is not receiving any money from the city.
Limberg said this was untrue as the Atlantis Aquifer has been a long-term project of the city’s and is funded by the city.
Ratua, however, did say that DWS does not need to contribute to any desalination plants as this must be funded by the city. He said the DWS was part of the planning process though and issued the necessary water use licences.
Limberg confirmed that the DWS issued the water use licences, but she feels that it should be paying for the desalination plants as it falls under bulk water supply infrastructure, which is supposed to be paid for by DWS.
She said municipalities were responsible for the reticulation and treatment of water to homes and businesses, while DWS was responsible for acquiring water supply through the construction and maintenance of bulk water infrastructure.
Ratua said the city and the province’s bulk water supply infrastructure would have been sufficient if the drought had not happened.
DWS is currently working on the Berg River-voëlvlei augmentation scheme which allows it to divert surplus water into the Voëlvlei Dam.
Limberg believes the DWS should stop only relying on surface water as this is heavily dependent on rainfall.
She said that had DWS provided funding towards the various augmentation projects currently on the go, it would have made the financial burden lighter on the city as well as residents.
The average level of dams in the city standi at 21.9%, with the largest dam Theewaterskloof standing at 10.5%.
Ray de Vries, founder and chief executive of Air Water Company, said even though Day Zero has been pushed back until next year, dam levels, specifically Theewaterskloof Dam, stood at 21% the same time last year.
However, Limberg said this was because of greater extraction that was taking place at Theewaterskloof Dam to maximise the water so that it didn’t go to waste as a result of evaporation.