Scientific studies have established that three aquifers in Cape Town can deliver at least 150-million litres of water every day on a sustainable basis, the city's mayor Patricia de Lille said on Tuesday.
Under the prevailing water restrictions, which limit each person to 87 litres a day, the city consumes about 580-million litres of water each day. The target is to reduce this to 500-million litres as part of the response to the continued debilitating drought, which has seen dam levels plummet to below 30%.
De Lille told reporters that a recent groundwater survey had confirmed that the aquifers around the city would deliver far more water than previously expected.
Preliminary findings from the first extensive mapping of underground water had established that the Cape Flats aquifer would deliver 80-million litres a day, the Table Mountain aquifer 40-million litres, and the Atlantis aquifer 30-million litres.
The aquifers would be replenished with purified waste water to ensure they remained sustainable.
De Lille said drill rigs would be moved onto sites in the Cape Flats this week. Big drilling firms from around the country had been contracted to do the work. In addition to drilling the aquifers, the city has embarked on three desalination projects, two of which will come on-stream in February and the other in March.
However, greater emphasis would be placed on the extraction of groundwater that would deliver greater volumes of water at a lower cost, De Lille said.
Drought charge
The deadline for public comment on the proposed drought charge has been extended to midnight on January 15. The city hopes to raise R1.6bn from the charge to make up the loss of revenue due to lower consumption of water. However, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has yet to give his consent to the imposition of this charge.
De Lille said discussions with the minister were ongoing. "We need to raise money to pay for these projects and, more importantly, to maintain our water reticulation system. To do this we have proposed the drought charge and invited public comment. We have received 45,000 comments to date."
Only 464,216 households out of 707,814 would be affected by the drought charge, according to De Lille. Of these, only 52,520 will pay more than R150 a month with the rest paying less; the majority will pay less than R47 a month.
De Lille said water consumption during the holidays had remained constant despite the higher number of tourists, due to the normal outflow of Cape Town residents to the Eastern Cape, Plettenberg Bay and elsewhere. However, she warned that current consumption remained too high with only 54% of residents sticking to the daily 87-litres quota. This means that "day zero" [when the dams are depleted] has been moved forward by a week to April 22 2018 from April 29.
Dam levels dipped below 30% during the first week of 2018 for the first time. As of this week, dam levels stood at 29.7%, of which only 19.7% is usable.
The city imposed level 6 water restrictions from January 1. This means all households which use more than 10,500 litres a month will have a water management device fitted to their water supply.
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