Cape Town Facing Serious Water Crises by 2012.Cape Town Facing Serious Water Crises by 2012.

19 June 2010

By 2012,Cape Town will be out of water. Over the past years,every six to seven years there has been a drought cycle in Cape Town. The last time Cape Town was in drought was during 2004.

As early as 1995 Professor Bryan Davies then Head of the fresh Water Research unit at UCT predicted that Cape Town would be dry by 2013. Not bad from as far back as that.

We have always been able to augment further supply by building an additional dam,but not so anymore. There is not another single place or any more river water that can possibly be found anywhere in the Western Cape for augmenting supply. The Western Cape is simply damned out of water.

The DWA (Department of Water Affairs) are now considering desalinating seawater and pumping water out of the TM aquifer. Neither of these solutions are sustainable and should not be pursued. To draw water out of the TM aquifer,would mean that the DWA will be augmenting supply with fossil water.

Seawater Desalination plants are energy hungry plants and very costly to operate. United States of America has been desalinating sea water for decades. At best,they are able to supply 1000l of desalinated water for $6 (R60 per 1000l). Apart from the high cost,where will we find the additional power to operate such plants? To desalinate 1000l of water,costs 4 kilowatt hours of electricity.

The Department of Water Affairs (the owners of the water in our dams) are no longer able to meet the demand for water for Cape Town from the rivers in the Western Cape. Dam levels on average are reducing by 0.3% per week,compared to 0.2% four years ago. This is an increase in water use of 50%.

The only long term sustainable solution to augment more water,is to harvest rainwater from roofs. If every household took the initiative to install a water tank,it will provide Cape Town with an additional 200,000,000,000 liters (200 million kiloliters) of water per year.

Households with rainwater harvesting systems are less reliant on water supplied by the DWA and are able to live off the grid. How is the possible? It’s possible to connect your water tank onto our current supply and you’ll always use free rainwater first,before using municipal water.

Harvesting Rainwater is environmentally friendly,a long term sustainable solution and will ensure Cape Town have more than enough water to satisfy demand. All dams belong to the Department of Water Affairs,therefore they charge you for water. Rainwater is free and it belongs to all of us.

So why doesn’t Minister Bulelwa Sonjica and the Department of Water Affairs encourage citizens to harvest rainwater?

Perhaps they are ONLY concerned about the loss of revenue for the department,instead of finding  long term sustainable solution in addressing the crises that awaits Cape Town….