Recent flooding has raised concerns over the province’s growing population and the stress it is placing on valuable infrastructure.
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It is estimated that the Western Cape is home to 11,9% of the national population, the third most of any province in the country, and is growing at a startling rate.
Earlier this year, a budget of R10,9 billion to address and improve its response to these issues was proposed by City of Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis who also promised to up investment to R18 billion over the course of the next three years.
‘Looking even further down the road, over the next ten years, we will spend R120bn on infrastructure projects, the bulk of which will go towards upgrading and expanding water and sanitation infrastructure across the Metro,’ he said.
IOL reports that Cape Town’s Deputy Mayor and mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said it is a well-known fact that areas including Du Noon, Khayelitsha, Parklands, Eerste Rivier, and Kraaifontein are some of the fastest growing population areas in the city.
‘Migration to Cape Town is spurred by those moving here in search of jobs and better service delivery. There is a mixture of the types of migration,’ he explained.
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This trend was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown, as well as the implementation of the national emergency regulations that prevented authorities from acting to prevent the unlawful occupation of land, according to Andrews.
‘This led to a significant increase in the illegal occupation of land.’
Andrews stated the unprecedented large-scale unlawful occupations created 186 new informal settlements, or more than 69 000 new structures (between March 2020 and December 2021).
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