Cape Town - The plan is an emergency response, hoping to add 500million litres per day to local water resources and it will cost upwards of R3.3billion. This is the gist of Mayor Patricia de Lille’s plan to augment the water supply of Cape Town and stave off Day Zero when the city will completely run out of drinkable water.
However she warned ratepayers would foot the bill for the interventions.
Cosatu has immediately slammed De Lille’s plan and called on the Department of Water and Sanitation to intervene.
The plan includes groundwater extraction, desalination plants, including one at Cape Town Harbour and another at Gordon's Bay Harbour and on barges at sea, as well as the re-usage of water.
The first phase of implementing the water plan, De Lille said, would cost about R2bn in the first financial year.
“The operating expenses being upwards of R1.3bn, it is inevitable that there will be a need for new water and rates tariffs to be developed based on new modelling over the coming months, which will need to be put to council for decision in May 2018 for implementation in July 2018,” De Lille said.
Tony Ehrenreich provincial secretary of Cosatu, said: “Why must poor people carry the burden of water increases, for something which was not their fault? If the City of Cape Town had a plan a few years ago this could have been prevented. They knew the implications of the drought. Last year they had no concrete plan to deal with the water crisis. The experts warned them that Cape Town would be facing a water crisis and that they had to implement urgent measures to prevent it. If things carry on this way we will have Day Zero with no water in March next year.”
Cape Town has only 21% of potable water. De Lille said, “Cape Town has up to now relied on its dam system for more than 90% of its potable water requirements”.
Craig Kesson the city’s chief resilience officersaid “as dam levels drop we need to look at how we will get 500 million litres of water a day. In 2017 we thought we would get rain during winter and that the drought would be temporary. There is no reason to expect that rainfall will recover in August or September and it would be irresponsible not to plan for it. The days of water abundance are over.”
Kumi Naidoo, former director of Greenpeace, said there was no doubt that what the “climate scientists warned us about, has had a major impact on water security for people in the Western Cape”. “With water supply at a precarious level, we can only hope that political leaders will get serious about planning South Africa’s long term water security.
“Water and soil quality are critical for food security and also for the economy given that agricultural produce is a key export that supports the Western Cape economy. If water supply drops, tough choices will need to be made between water for economic activity and for water consumption,” Naidoo said.