Today journalists gathered to hear the much-anticipated ‘water resilience plan’ which was unveiled by the Mayor of the City of Cape Town.

We’ve gathered a collection of tweets and media which were tweeted today during proceedings, to provide an accurate picture of what the plan will be going forward.

 

To summarize, the City aims to get an additional 500 million litres of water into the City daily, by means of desalination, groundwater extraction, and water re-use. The breakdown has been laid out as follows:

Technology Total Ml/day per technology Locations
Immediate and first tranche
Groundwater extraction 100 Atlantis and Silverstroom, Cape Flats, Cape Peninsula, Hottentots Holland
Desalination – land-based containers 50 Koeberg, Silverstroom, Woodbridge Island, Granger Bay, Hout Bay, Red Hill, Strandfontein, Monwabisi, Harmony Park
Desalination – barge 50 Cape Town Harbour
Second trenche
  Water reuse 50 Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works, Bellville Wastewater Treatment Works, Fisantekraal Wastewater Treatment Works, Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works, Cape Flats Wastewater Treatment Works, Macassar Wastewater Treatment Works
Desalination – land-based permanent 50 Cape Town Harbour
Extreme Trenche
Desalination – marine-based 200 Cape Town Harbour
Gordons Bay
Total 500

To quote the statement released by the City, there is additionally a planned augmentation of 10 Ml/day from the TMG aquifer and 1 Ml/day from the Oranjezicht Spring. Both these initiatives featured in the drought response prior to the launch of the Water Resilience Portfolio Response in May.

The City’s Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) forecasts that up to R2 billion rand will be spent on capital projects during the current and next financial year, while an amount of R1.3 billion has been projected as the operating costs to supply this water.

Quoting the City further, the conclusion was that ‘there are numerous other initiatives related to household and business adaptation that are under way which will be announced in due course. The strategic phase includes a number of initiatives, such as improving efficiencies in the Western Cape Water Supply System, rehabilitation of catchments outside of Cape Town’s jurisdiction, and improved management and use of stormwater. The water resilience approach has both short- and long-term ambitions.’

We’ll keep you posted with further updates.

 

Photography City of Cape Town

 

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