A Restrictions Management Committee will soon be convened in the Western Cape to coordinate all water restrictions and drought related matters.

This comes after Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane met with the Western Cape provincial Minister of Local Government, Environment and Development Planning, Anton Bredell along with representatives of the City of Cape Town, in an attempt to find short, medium and long-term solutions to the current drought and water challenges facing the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town in particular.

“The meeting agreed that there was an immediate need to establish a Restrictions Management Committee convened by the province and inclusive of all three spheres of government to immediately create a centre of coordination on all restrictions and drought related matters,” explains Mokonyane.

“This will lead to a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) to ensure we save available water, improve management of the water supply systems, mobilise society to adhere to restrictions and collectively, we consider and approve augmentation projects that will assist to safe-guard water availability for the City of Cape Town and the province.”

Technical teams from national, provincial and local government are meeting to consider options on augmentations projects and the possible acceleration of key infrastructure projects. All options will be presented for approval by the Mokonyane, her provincial counterparts and mayors.

“Given the challenges the province faces, we must utilise and implement projects that provide access to a water mix that covers augmentation through surface water, supports ground water exploration, promotes the harvesting of rainwater and drastically decreases water losses through leaks, illegal connections and aged infrastructure,” said Mokonya.

Engagements with the agricultural sector will be undertaken to ensure that the responses to the current water challenges are inclusive of all water users in the province. Once the Restrictions Management Committee commences its work, weekly updates on water use and savings across all municipalities affected will be provided publicly to ensure citizens and users remain consistently informed of the water situation within the province and City of Cape Town.

Current drought situation

Last week the provincial dam levels were at an average water storage level of 30.2% and dropping by between 1.4% and 1.6% weekly.

In line with the serious threat to water security posed by the drought, the City of Cape Town is currently implementing level 3B water restrictions and similar restrictions are being applied across the province by various municipalities. These dictate a 20% restriction on domestic water use and 30% for agricultural users.

“We need to reduce our depletion rate of dams to at least 1% per week as opposed to the current 1.6% per week if we are to safely navigate the water shortages and drought over the next winter and summer periods. To this end, collaboration with all stakeholders including the agricultural sector in the main is important,” said Mokonyane.