The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has called for municipalities to look for ways to secure alternative water resources. This comes as water restrictions are imposed on the Western Cape.

“The current situation calls for mitigation measures to be implemented. We call upon municipalities that over and above water restrictions there must be attempts to secure alternative sources. These could include for example, drilling of boreholes where there is significant potential in ground water,” the DWS said in a statement

The lower-than-normal rainfall caused by El Niño since last year continues to impact negatively on dam levels across South Africa.

Due to this, the major dams supplying the Western Cape Water Supply System (WSWSS) have been severely drawn down over the past year due to a combination of high demands and low inflows into the dams.

The average combined dam levels in the Western Cape before the latest rains were at nearly 30% as compared to 57 % last year at the same time.

As part of mitigating against the situation, the Director-General (DG) of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Ms Margaret-Ann Diedricks,  approved the imposition of water restrictions in May 2016 to be introduced to high level water-stressed areas of the Western Cape.

The DWS has approved 20% water restrictions to be imposed in the supply area of the Berg Water Management Area and some parts of Breede Water Management area. The restrictions will be implemented to both domestic and agriculture.

Jointly with other stakeholders, the DWS is implementing short, medium and long term measures to address and mitigate against the situation. These measures, amongst others, include

• diversifying the country’s water mix to include groundwater utilisation, rainwater harvesting, re-use of return flows and packaged desalination plants, as well as recycling
• reducing operational risks through proper infrastructure operation and maintenance with associated skills development
• cut down on wastage of water
• implementing water conservation and demand management programmes which include the War on Leaks and Drop the Block interventions

in addition to this, the DWS completed all town strategies early this year and these will be utilised to update Water Services Development Plans (WSDPs)

The department is also developing a water app which will provide the following:

• enable people to report water leaks and pipe bursts by simply pointing the phone and relaying the information to relevant authorities
• encourage people to save water by sharing water saving measures
• input individual meter readings which will be the daily consumption that can also be relayed to the necessary authorities for their reference
• share creative ideas on how to stretch the available water