| Work Detail |
The province is looking at the state of infrastructure in relation to water and all that contributes to water resilience as part of a broader strategy By 2035, the Western Cape (WC) Government plans to have 341 million cubic meters of additional water in the system per annum. This is a target for the provincial government stated in the Western Cape Water Resilience Strategy. Officials from the water and energy department, along with the Premier of the Western Cape Alan Winde, yesterday (12 March) gave an update on progress made by the Integrated Energy and Water Council. Head of Department for local government, Graham Paulse, said the water resilience strategy is a shared responsibility between the provincial government, the City of Cape Town and the balance of the municipalities, as well as the national and provincial departments. Paulse said the key components of the strategy revolve around augmentation, water conservation, demand management, infrastructure development and governance. The augmentation interventions include: Ecological infrastructure investment, including invasive alien plant removal and wetland and riparian rehabilitation river protection works, Water-sensitive design, Water source quality improvements, Groundwater exploration, Aquifer recharge, New surface storage dams, Wastewater Treatment Works reclamation, and Desalination.Conservation and demand management are key to water resilience in Western Cape Paulse said water conservation and demand management is key areas that they are looking at, and the idea is to reduce the litres per day per person to 180L by 2035. “You can see it’s also around the ecological infrastructure, more alien vegetation, and great efficiency in terms of business and industrial use in relation to water and also agricultural use, and therefore we’re saying that domestic use must free up so that we can actually stimulate both the business and industrial use for water,” he explained. In terms of the infrastructure developments, Paulse said they are looking at the state of infrastructure in relation to water in the province’s refurbishment, replacement and maintenance, and all that contributes to water resilience as part of the broader strategy. In governance, there is work that they are doing around asset management: “We undertake what we call a condition assessment of the state of infrastructure in the municipalities. We are assisting with master planning, and obviously climate change will involve the element of water, but disaster management, and we also focus on disaster preparedness within the province. |
