Team Cape Town, building a water resilient city together

27 Oct 2020 in Where We Govern

During today’s media briefing at Wemmershoek Dam, the City’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato, joined by Mayoral Committee members Alderman Xanthea Limberg (Water and Waste) and Executive Deputy Mayor Alderman Ian Neilson (Finance), discussed Cape Town’s water outlook over the next few years and beyond. This with the aspiration to be the first African city to be seen as a world leader in water and sanitation services. The next water chapter will build on the resilience and partnerships created that saw Team Cape Town avert Day Zero.

  • Dams are currently full, thanks to water savings by residents and the City’s management of resources and drought recovery measures.
  • Based on the current fullness of dams, the City is removing water restrictions from 1 November 2020, while encouraging residents to remain water-wise.
  • The water tariffs will also move to the lowest tariff, namely the no restriction, water-wise tariff.
  • In six years, we have come full circle in terms of surface water supply as well as fulfilling our commitment of deploying temporary alternative sources of supply, such as our temporary desalination plants. Climate modelling as we know it, is no longer a reliable metric on which to predict the availability of water in terms of rainfall, looking at our recent drought experience. The City continues to pursue its New Water Programme and the commitments laid out in its Water Strategy, come rain or shine.

Cape Town is located in a water-scarce region, and our climate – particularly in Southern Africa – is proving increasingly unpredictable. The City is enhancing its management of existing water supply, and it accepts the responsibility that it needs to step beyond its municipal mandate in terms of bulk water supply provision, as we did during the recent drought. In the face of rising temperatures globally, and erratic rainfall patterns, the City is pushing ahead with realising the objectives laid out in the Water Strategy of building resilience and water security for this generation and generations to come.

‘In the span of six short years, dams supplying Cape Town went from full, to almost drying out as predicted rainfall did not materialise contrary to the national climatic modelling. It took about three years for the dams to recover to once more overflowing, which was a result of changes in water usage, savings and rainfall.

‘During this time, we all learnt harsh lessons about the finite nature of water availability, the unpredictability of rainfall and the reality of a changing climate. The City’s Water Strategy was drafted during the peak of the drought and sets out plans to accelerate the development of new water sources to increase available water supply by 300 million litres per day over the next 10 years and reduce the reliability on surface water and risks associated with it,’ said the City’s Executive Mayor Alderman Dan Plato.

The data around collective water consumption indicates that our relationship with water has fundamentally changed, and most likely permanently. For the first time since restrictions were implemented, Capetonians are exceeding the requirements of water restrictions. Collective consumption has hovered at around 650 to 700 Megalitres (million litres) per day, roughly 30% lower than historical levels. As Team Cape Town, we have become a leader in water conservation and resilience.

The much improved water conservation has bought us some time. However, droughts are predicted to become more frequent and intense, and our City’s population is anticipated to continue growing. This is why we have accepted our expanded mandate to ensure we diversify our water sources and increase our available supply. We have always had a proactive approach to water management and although it is no easy task, our expert teams have already made some encouraging progress in pursuing the City’s New Water Programme. Residents can expect steady increases and diversity of available supply over the next 10 years however, our partnership will continue. As we move to diversify and secure supply, we all need to remain water-wise.

‘Our partners in business, including the hospitality and retail sectors played an important role in the fight to beat back Day Zero, and we thank them for amplifying the call to reduce water consumption. Given that we are now in a much stronger position than we were a couple of years ago, and the urgency of the crisis has eased, I would like to now invite these establishments to replace their drought crisis signs with water-wise information to remind residents and visitors to use water responsibly,’ said Mayor Plato.

New Water Programme in action

  • The Table Mountain Group Aquifer is already providing 15 million litres of groundwater to our water supply per day and construction has commenced on the Cape Flats Aquifer Scheme.
  • A permanent desalination plant is still in the planning phase and is provisionally scheduled for completion around 2026/27. The cost of a permanent desalination plant is currently estimated at approximately R1,8 billion and will produce approximately 50 million litres per day.

During the drought, we promised to bring temporary desalination plants into operation to provide emergency water supply. We did so. The operation of the two temporary desalination plants in Monwabisi and Strandfontein has provided valuable hands-on experience in producing desalinated water, which will help us as we work towards larger scale desalination projects. The experience has taught us a lot about the management of a desalination plant, and it has built confidence that this is a viable way of reliably producing good quality drinking water.

  • Alien vegetation clearing: Extensive clearing of thirsty invasive alien vegetation within our catchment and on City-owned land has been under way for a number years. Not only is this a relatively quick and affordable intervention, saving billions of litres of water, but it has also provided local work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). A lot of work will continue to go into strengthening partnerships with all land owners and custodians of land in our catchment areas to ensure we all eradicate alien vegetation.
  • The City is working towards implementation of a large-scale water reuse scheme by 2026. This will help enable the most beneficial use of our scarce resources.

‘The New Water Programme projects, including those currently under way and those on the horizon, are designed to create a scenario in which high-level water restrictions, as we recently experienced, should not be required again in the near future. The City has always managed water resources proactively, therefore there has always been good water management practises in place as contained in our by-laws because Cape Town is situated in a water-scarce area.

‘Achieving this goal of simultaneously fulfilling the Water Strategy’s other commitments around universal access and reducing pollution of our urban waterways should see Cape Town entrench itself as the only African city to be a world leader when it comes to providing water and sanitation services.

‘We are all very excited about the City’s aspiration to become the first African member of the Leading Utilities of the World, a network of the world’s most forward-thinking water and wastewater utilities. Its members represent the gold standard of utility innovation and performance throughout the developed world’s water sector. The objective of the initiative is to create a global network of the world’s most successful and innovative water and wastewater utilities, to help drive performance across the sector by recognising achievement, providing a network for sharing ideas, and inspiring others to improve. We are confident that the City’s innovations in this sector to date place us in a position to start building a case for entry.

‘Our Water Strategy commits the City to not only becoming water resilient, but also to provide a service for all which includes improving water and sanitation services in informal settlements, and to transform our relationship with water by becoming a water sensitive city,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Waste, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.

Building resilience together

The City is expecting a slight increase in consumption levels compared with before winter, following the easing of water restrictions and providing some tariff relief. Building resilience against climate change, which has to now be accelerated, comes at a cost.

An insecure water supply suppresses economic growth. Investing in water security now helps pave the way for a more prosperous society for all, and a secure water supply will help grow the City to compete effectively for international investment into the future.

Fixed part of the water tariff

Misperceptions around the fixed part of the water tariff persist, mainly around the permanent nature of this component of the tariff. The introduction of the fixed part of the tariff was needed to ensure reliability of income regardless of how much water is used. It is not a penalty or a drought charge. Such a charge was never approved by Council so it never came into effect.

The fixed part is meant to stabilise the income stream for water services. If the revenue stream of a water service provider is unstable, it means there is less capacity to both conserve the water we have available, and prepare for a future that is predicted to come with even more serious water challenges due to climate change. Dividing the tariff into a fixed part and variable (usage) part improves the stability of our revenue streams to help the City ensure that water continues to flow reliably, despite climate change.

The City does not budget for a profit/surplus from the sale of water and seeks to keep costs of service delivery as low as possible, in the midst of factors such as population growth, increasing development and increasing water-related costs, over the years.

What residents need to know about water tariffs

  • City water costs on average 4 cents per litre in comparison to R10 per litre for shop-bought bottled water.
  • Based on the first 10 500 litres of water used and a 15mm metre connection, the average bill will be R411,99 on the no restriction, water-wise tariff. This is compared with R785,38 under the Level 6B tariff at the peak of the drought.
  • The City’s water tariff, like some other metros, has a usage and a fixed part and it forms the total water tariff that covers the cost of providing water. This includes the maintenance of infrastructure and making sure Cape Town is resilient by adding new sources to its water supply and becoming a water-sensitive city.
  • The cost of providing the service remains largely the same regardless of how much or how little water is used, or how full the dams are.
  • Residents who are registered as indigent do not pay the fixed part of the water tariff and receive a free allocation of water monthly.

What residents need to know about the no-restriction, water-wise restriction level

More information about the City’s Water Strategy can be found here: www.capetown.gov.za/general/cape-town-water-strategy