CoCT intensifies efforts to clamp down on water wastage

The City of Cape Town (CoCT) is intensifying efforts to clamp down on water wastage, with major investment going into ageing infrastructure and leak repairs.

Half a billion rand has been allocated this financial year to replace 50 kilometres of water pipes across the metro.

The metro said this is part of its ambitious upgrade programme aimed at reducing water losses.

City officials said in just six months, nearly 22,000 leaks have already been repaired.

Etienne Hugo, the director of Distribution Services in the Water and Sanitation Directorate, said the city is taking active steps to reduce water running to waste.

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"What we also do is pressure management and that's basically to reduce the pressure or to regulate the pressure in the water supply system to work within norms and standards to ensure that we don't have excessive pressures that can cause unnecessary burst pipes. As we know, when a pipe burst you lose the water."

He urged residents to play their part by cutting water use and reporting leakages.

"They are our eyes and ears because they cover the entire city. We’ve got over 11 000km of water pipes so we don't have people that can look at that on a daily basis whereas the residents can actually look at it for us and report it through to the city's channels so that we can get to it and repair that."

CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER SUPPLY

The CoCT noted that climate change uncertainty is accelerating the need to diversify its water supply, as dam levels continue to decline.

Municipal officials report that dam storage is currently sitting at just 57% and dropping by around 2% week on week.

With rainfall patterns becoming increasingly unpredictable, the city warns that relying on surface water no longer sustainable.

The city said it has an ambitious new water programme aimed at securing the metro’s water future.

Water and Sanitation MMC Zahid Badroodien said they plan to produce an additional 300 million litres of new water by 2031.

“Essentially, we are saying we need to move away from our dams which is essentially at about 97% reliance at the moment, diversifying that so that at least 25% of our water resources come from desalination, water reuse, responsible groundwater abstraction.

“And also, try to save as much of the rain runoff into our catchments by removing the alien invasive plants from those catchment areas."