Cape Town - Had the lack of rainfall persisted this season, the Day Zero scenario would have become a grim reality, as the City’s water augmentation programmes have fallen flat.
In a report, the City’s water and waste department reveals it failed to spend the R417million meant to provide an additional supply to the City’s drinking-water resources.
“This is primarily due to the New Water Programme. (It) was created during the drought emergency period to deliver an additional supply of water.
“This resulted in projects being prepared via an ‘unusual business’ methodology.
“Delays experienced (for example, access to properties, etc) have resulted in slower than anticipated progress in groundwater explorations in the Cape Flats, TMG and Atlantis,” the report stated.
Mayco member for water and waste services Xanthea Limberg said: “This is mostly related to the exploration of potential groundwater sources.
“The groundwater exploration projects were created during the drought (and) emergency period to deliver an additional supply of water. Initial exploration of the aquifer on land accessible to the City did not yield the results in terms of quality and quantity we were hoping for. And we have not been able to implement the Cape Flats groundwater abstraction project within the anticipated time-frame.”
Limberg said the implementation of the Cape Flats Groundwater Abstraction Programme was delayed.
In March last year, seven of the City’s eight alternative water-source projects were running behind schedule. Six were supposed to be feeding water into the system well ahead of the July 9 Day Zero projection.
“Delays are largely related to the groundwater extraction. Many of the aquifer sites are on privately owned land, and gaining access has delayed implementation due to lengthy negotiations. In some instances the City will have to pursue expropriation.
“The water quality from the Cape Flats aquifer has necessitated additional treatment, which has also delayed injecting the planned yields into the system,” Limberg added.
But there were more problems facing the department.
According to the report, the City has struggled to supply water services to a number of informal settlements and has not met its target.
“We are currently experiencing delays to planned tap installations as a result of low water-pressure in certain areas, which has a detrimental effect on the operation of the number of taps being installed. It has also resulted in challenges in community acceptance, as they attribute the low pressure (and no flow from the standpipes) to the standpipes being installed,” the report pointed out.
Opposition parties and lobby groups are fuming. “These are issues that speak to the basic services of the people This is an insult to the poorest of the poor,” said Xolani Sotashe, ANC caucus leader in the City.
EFF leader Banzi Bambuza said that the City should stop priding itself as being pro-poor. “Proper water and sanitation has not been delivered to the people,” he said.
Cape Town Civic Alliance chairperson Philip Bam said: “We are amazed that they cannot spend their money collected from the ratepayers. Whoever is dealing with these issues must understand the plight of the people.”