The levels of the main dams that supply the City of Cape Town continue to fall to the lowest on record, but the council assured residents there is no need for panic.
Without rainfall, the Voëlvlei Dam would only be able to supply the metropole until July and the West Coast municipalities until the end of May. However, the council said it did not want to “unleash a panic” and it has the situation under control.
The 20 percent water restrictions are having the desired effect and consumers are using water more sparingly.
On Monday, the levels of the six dams that supply the city stood at 32.8 percent, down from 34.1 percent on the previous week. The Voëlvlei Dam is only about three metres deep now, at 20 percent full.
If it does not rain, the dam would only have enough water to supply the city until the end of June or early July. The Berg River Dam is only at 25 percent of capacity, while Theewaterskloof is hovering around 34 percent.
The Wemmershoek and Steenbras dams are also at their lowest levels on record.
Barry Wood, the city’s manager of bulk water supply, told the council’s portfolio committee on utilities on Monday adjustments had been made to reduce abstraction from the Voëlvlei Dam from 40 million metres cubed a day in February, to about 25 to 30 million metres cubed a day currently.More water is being taken from the Theewaterskloof Dam via the Faure and Blackheath Water Treatment Plants to compensate.
While the chairman of the utilities committee, Shaun August, called for greater public awareness of the situation, Mayco member for utilities Ernest Sonnenberg said he believed the public was already well-informed.
Wood said weather predictions were that the province would experience above-average rainfall in May, below-average in June and slightly above normal in July. This would put dam levels at about 70 percent by the end of winter. “We don’t have to be too concerned, provided that it starts to rain.’’
Sonnenberg said council would, therefore, find itself in the same position later this year as it did at the same time last year, and consumers would have to continue using water sparingly.
The council said while water usage in the city had remained stable in recent years, projections were that demand would increase soon.
With this in mind, it had already started an environmental impact assessment into the extraction of water from theBerg River to pump into the Voëlvlei Dam by 2021.
A feasibility study into further reclamation from waste water would start this year.
A feasibility study into water desalination had already been completed and a pilot plant would be set up this year to test the water quality that can be achieved.
Wood, however, said the costs associated with this option would be “astronomical”, estimated at R16 billion.
The possibile extraction of water from the Lourens River in the south-west of the metropole was being probed, but this had environmentally-sensitive implications.
A feasibility study into the recharging of the Cape Flats aquifer would be carried out next year, Wood said.
Cape Argus
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