The City of Cape Town has received a grant of R20.8 million from the Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, in aid of drought relief efforts.
In a letter sent to the City from the National Disaster Management Centre, it stated that the money would be made available, and that the purpose of the funds were solely to provide emergency relief for the drilling of boreholes, and the installation of pumps and pipelines due to drought conditions.
Last week, the city unveiled plans to augment the system by up to 500 million liters of water a day over the coming months, using groundwater extraction, desalination and water extraction. The incoming grant will go a long way towards the implementation of the programmes in place as part of the City’s Water Resilience Strategy.
The projects will cost the City approximately R2 billion in capital funding and R1.3 billion in operating costs. In July, R1 billion was raised in the City’s Green Bond, which will contribute to funding for the upcoming water augmentation projects.
“The City’s Water Resilience Plan has been developed based on the New Normal scenario where we no longer bank only on rain water for our drinking water supplies, but look at a range of technologies to augment our supply of drinking water in order to build greater water security,” Mayor Patricia De Lille said.
As at 23 August 2017, Cape Town’s supply dams were at 22.5% of usable water.
Photography Aletta Harrison