Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene November 2018 Vol.13 No.5 | Page 7

NEWS in brief
South Africa
Drilling for Water ‘Makes No Economic Sense’
The City of Cape Town’s
(CoCT) borehole drilling
programme has scientists
scratching their heads at the
apparent determination of the
City to drill into the hard rock
of the Table Mountain Group
Aquifer (TMGA) at great
cost, while other cheaper and more environment-friendly
options are not first explored.
Dr Jasper Slingsby of the South African Environmental
Observation Network (SAEON) suggests that alternative
initiatives, like clearing of alien vegetation could see as
much as 100 million additional litres of water running into
our dams daily, increasing the supply by as much as 20%,
at much less cost to ratepayers.
view is shared by Dr Jane Turpie, Deputy Director at the
University of Cape Town’s Environmental Policy Research
Unit, who writes that the most affordable ways to boost
its future water supply is to decommission commercial
forestry plantations in catchment areas that feed the
dams and clear invasive alien plants in these key water
catchments.
“I have been shocked by the City’s lack of willingness
to address the issue of invasive trees in our catchments.
They’re currently using more water than the projected
losses under the worst case climate change scenarios, yet
the City’s Water Resilience Plan, is justified by the threat of
climate change and completely ignores the more imminent
threat of alien trees... Clearing aliens is much cheaper
than any augmentation scheme, creates jobs, protects
biodiversity, reduces fire risk, reduces soil erosion and dam
sedimentation,” says Dr Slingsby.
Executive Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson, claimed
the City had implemented a “successful vegetation control
programme for more than 10 years” but pointed out that
most of the catchment areas of dams supplying Cape
Town were “outside of the city boundaries and thus are
not directly under the City’s control”.
He cited the Wemmershoek Dam, around which 170ha of
alien vegetation was cleared in 2017, with a further 110ha
to be cleared over the next year.
The City has also come under fire from Professor Anthony
Turton of the Centre for Environmental Management at
University of Free State, who has criticised the City for
failing to properly evaluate the cost-benefits of drilling for
groundwater, saying the decision is not based on “robust
Around Africa
information”.
“The City cite a misguided report by a post doctoral
student that claimed the Millennial Drought in Australia
had caused authorities to ‘over-react’ and build desalination
plants that they have now had to ‘mothball’. In fact, they
are building more desalination plants,” he says.
“Groundwater is cited as being the least cost option, but it
is compared to desalination at a grossly inflated price. This
is not a fair assessment. Groundwater cannot be costed at
present because too little information is available to make
an informed decision.
“In the public interest we also need to flush out an accurate
evaluation of the true costs and benefits of a range of
water treatment technologies, including but not limited
to: Managed aquifer recharge, desalination, recovery of
water from waste, and the viability of additional bulk water
storage for surface water systems.”
In response, Neilson claimed Turton’s claim was
“misleading” and that massive capital projects in response
to a drought could overburden the ratepayer, if normal
rainfall resumes and the drought turns out to be a discrete
event.
He said “re-commissioning” of Australian desalination
plants “does not detract from our argument” and
that desalination forms “only one part of our water
augmentation effort”.
He re-iterated that the costs of large-scale desalination
would have a big impact on the price of water.
Source: News24
Uganda
President Museveni Commissions Murema Water
Project
President
Yoweri
Museveni
has
launched the Mulema
water scheme in
Bukanga
County
of Isingiro District
in South Western
Uganda saying the
service, which the
NRM Government has now availed to the area, forms a
foundation for development in the entire Isingiro District.
The President made the remarks at a public rally that
was held at Mulema Primary School in Bukanga County
shortly after launching the Mulema water scheme. The
area has been prone to water shortage, especially during
drought spells, affecting both domestic and agricultural
activities. The President also laid a foundation stone for
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