City of Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, announced at a media briefing yesterday that the City is considering introducing a special levy or surcharge on water to help alleviate the severe drought that is currently crippling the region.
“I will be honest with you‚ we have been considering a water levy or a water surcharge‚ amongst the other funding mechanisms to fund our augmentation schemes. This is all to avoid Day Zero. But any proposal that we put on the table that will enable us to survive this crisis will be and must be subject to public participation. So when we are ready to present any proposal that will impact on the water uses‚ we will ensure public participation” said de Lille.
She added that the City has been looking at alternative channels of funding through the French and German Development Banks, of which talks are ongoing to get six desalination plants and one water recycling plant functional by February 2018. The collective projects may add an additional 196-million liters of water to the city each day.
Further details surrounding the above-mentioned water levies are yet to be announced, but we can expect more information to be announced as the drought tightens its grip towards “Day Zero”.
“While the good water saving efforts had pushed Day Zero out from March 2018‚ many residents took this as a sign that there was some reprieve. The fact that it has moved forward to May 6th is due to consumption increasing to 602-million litres of water per day this past week‚” said the Mayor at yesterday’s briefing.
Photography Twitter
