With nearly R5 billion earmarked to ensure future water supply, the City of Cape Town is pleased with the progress that has been made on two major projects.
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This comes following last week’s meetings with the respective Monitoring Committees which confirmed that the Cape Flats Aquifer Management Scheme (CFAMS) and the Table Mountain Group Aquifer (TMGA) groundwater projects were progressing well.
The monitoring committees were formed in line with the water use licence that was issued by DWS to the City in December 2017 for groundwater abstraction and Managed Aquifer Recharge at the CFA, as well as groundwater abstraction from the TMGA. Cape Nature holds the significant role as chairperson at the CFA Monitoring Committee meeting (and previously the TMGA Monitoring Committee meetings).
The committees’ comprise various environmentalists, farmers associations, scientists, officials (stormwater, wastewater, biodiversity, environmental management, and bulk water), regulatory authorities (Department of Water and Sanitation, Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, and Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning).
All are Cape Town residents with different kinds of expertise and perspectives to contribute to the City’s responsible development and management of these groundwater schemes.
“Cape Town is in a water scarce region and City teams are doing all they can to ensure that we continue to invest in and build a reliable and safe drinking water supply through our updated New Water Programme,” said acting Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Councillor Siseko Mbandezi. “Diversifying our water sources, through projects such as groundwater, water reuse and desalination, will reduce the City’s current dependence on rain-fed dams as the main source of water.”
“The monitoring committees play a very important oversight role to monitor and assess the implementation of the groundwater projects and the water quality,” Mbandezi explained. “We thank the representatives for keeping the City accountable and for their valuable contribution to Cape Town’s journey to secure our future water supply in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically responsible.”
Drilling and construction operations are well under way on the CFAMS and the first wellfield (borehole cluster), located in Strandfontein, is almost complete.
The first groundwater injected into the water supply network from this scheme is expected towards the end of the second quarter of 2023.
Further drilling will also be underway soon and targets the deeper Peninsula Formation of the TMGA. The City has already completed one borehole reaching 1km in depth. It is anticipated that the full yield of the Steenbras Cluster will be about 25 Ml/d.
Environmental mitigation and controls are administered to ensure the protection of the Steenbras Nature Reserve, which falls within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve.
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Pictures: Supplied
