Xavier Radio Ug News 24 7
The City of Cape Town’s exploration of alternative sources of water forms part of its target of providing 300 megalitres of new water by the year 2031.
This comes while it has issued an Early Drought Caution, saying the metro’s water supply is currently 20% less than this time last year.
The City says it will assess the situation again during the highest rainfall months from June to August, before considering water restrictions.
The alternative water sources include a desalination programme.
“The capital cost of desalination in today’s terms is round-about R5.5 million and that’s for a 50-70 megalitre per day desalination plant: that’s the capital cost, it’s not necessarily the operating cost of desalination, desalination is quite expensive because it’s a highly energy-intensive scheme. But if we look at the impact on the end-user, in real terms, in tariff increases, it will be about 14%: that’s over-and-above inflation, but the city would try to phase that in over a number of years to lessen the impact on the consumer,” says Director of Bulk Services for Water and Sanitation in the City of Cape Town, Mike Killick.
VIDEO | Various parts of SA have been facing water supply challenges:
The city has warned that the integrated dam system is currently sitting at about 57%. The dams are part of the Western Cape Water Supply System, currently under strain from a hot and dry summer.
“We have at the moment a very ambitious pipe replacement programme, almost half a billion rand, trying to fix 50 kilometres of water pipe, within our city. That is in addition to our water pressure interventions, our pressure zones and then also trying to ensure that proactively, our water detection teams are out there identifying invisible and visible leaks so that they can be attended to, as quickly as possible. In the space of about six months, we’ve already attended to about 22 000 leaks in the city, so there’s a very active intervention to try and reduce water wastage on the city side but also to invest in our infrastructure as well,” says City of Cape Town Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation, Dr Zahid Badroodien.
Dams are at 55,4%, about 18,7% lower than last year.Rainfall has been below average. Be water wise.Last week’s water use: 1 073MLD, more than our 975MLD limit.
Let’s be water wise to safeguard our limited supply, every drop counts!#SummerWaterSavingsCT pic.twitter.com/OKG7XaVjOW
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) February 24, 2026
www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/city-of-cape-town-aims-to-provide-300-megalitres-of-new-water-by-2031/
