The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre recently conducted an exercise to test the vehicle drive-through configuration of the City’s water collection points.

Despite Day Zero being deferred the municipality has continued with its emergency preparedness planning to ensure the City’s readiness in the event that dams reach critical levels and forces the shutdown of the reticulation network to individual properties.

According to the Disaster Risk Management Centre the aim of the exercise was to test different layouts and assess which configuration is most efficient and safe as well as to collect data on how long it would take to fill containers.

In addition the City also used the opportunity to assess staffing and other operational requirements as well as evaluate the impact of potential traffic congestion on the on-site operations and the surrounding area.

“The DRMC has been working to ensure that the points of water distribution can be effectively managed,” the City said in a statement.

“This involves anticipating what strategies households and businesses will employ to meet their water needs in the event of Day Zero and how these strategies can be supported by designing and managing the PODs in a way that ensures water collection can be made quickly and safely,” it concluded.