New concerns have arisen over whether the City of Cape Town
will weather the coming dry season with adequate water supplies.
Civic action group Dear Cape Town, last week expressed their
concern over the sudden drop of water augmentation levels as indicated on the
weekly water report published by the City every Monday.
According to this water report it is evident that water
augmentation levels dropped from almost 50Ml per day to a very low 25Ml per
day, said Sandra Dickson from Dear Cape Town, speaking to TygerBurger at her
office in Brackenfell.
Dickson and her collueges have been keeping a very close eye
on the weekly water reports.
“Along with this almost non-existent water augmentation, the
current situation of the large water draw down by agriculture and our dam
levels dropping by 1% per week in our six major dams during the past three
weeks, can land us back to where we were a year ago,” she says.
“It is clear by doing some calculations that agriculture has
been taking up their water quotas since 25 October 2018 and that water draw
down from the six major dams more than doubled as a result. Some people in the
agriculture sector are seriously lobbying to have their water supply restored
entirely,” she says adding that if this is the case, it is crucial to know what
is the City is doing to protect the public’s water supply in Cape Town.
“This issue concerns every person that lives in the City of
Cape Town and in the quest for transparency the City has to provide logical
answers,” she says.
Having been made aware of the little activity at Monwabisi
and Strandfontein desalination plants, TygerBurger three weeks ago asked the
City whether these plants were shut and requested a media tour to the plants.
We also asked why?
This request was immediately refused, with the explanation
that because the operations itself are not owned by the City, the owners of the
plants do not always have the capacity to host site visits as the sites are
subject to health and safety legislation.
“Therefore, we go according to what the owners of the plants
are able to do at a given time. As you know, you are very welcome to go to the
(public parking) adjacent to the sites (from where it is visible),” the City’s
media offices advised.
And on Monday executive Mayor Ian Neilson stated that the
water augmentation levels declined from 50Ml to 25Ml, due to high levels of
turbidity at sea (murkiness).
He said neither of the plants were shut down and are both
still operational, but that full production was hindered from 5 November and
onwards due to the turbidity levels.
However, doubt was created when Dickson received a different
answer from Michael John Webster the City’s director of Water and Sanitation, on Friday.
He stated: “The temporary desalination plants at
Strandfontein and Monwabisi were not operational from 1 November to 8 November
due to very high turbidity levels in the sea. This would have caused problems
in the treatment process and hence the plants were shutdown.”
“Due to the disparity in these statements and the confusion
it creates, we would like to see record of how often plants are being shut down
for this reason and how this affects the operation,” Dickson responded.
“Desalination seems not to be reliable – what if a huge
plant producing say 50% of our water has to be shut down for an entire week? My
conclusion is that the City are charging us these high tariffs and we are
getting literally nothing in return.”
Neilson said a new draft Water Strategy will be presented to
members of the public in the new year for full public oversight and input.
But Dickson remains inconvinced.
“It is good that public participaion is being done, but this
only after almost two years and billions or Rand already spent on water
augmentation?
What is your opinion on this article? Let us know at
briewe@tygerburger.co.za.
