Plumbing Africa September 2018 | Page 64

62 TECHNICAL How Cape Town and other municipalities refuse to accept a day without water The South African City of Cape Town has implemented several measures to save water, to eliminate Day Zero. Although Day Zero has been postponed to 2019, the City still faces a challenge to conserve water. By Matt Chapuran Russ Chaney In the spirit of the sharing of unique experiences that shape the plumbing industries in our respective nations, the following article looks at steps that Cape Town, South Africa, is taking to avoid being the world’s first major city to run out of fresh water. Written by IAPMO correspondent Matt Chapuran, it is the next in a regular series of similar articles that will run in this magazine. Overall, the City has seen progress, citing a drop of 400 million litres each day in the past year. The increased roll-out of pressure management interventions alone has resulted in savings of 50MLD over the past two months. However, the crisis is far from solved, with usage in March at 516MLD. The City is warning its residents that if it cannot reach its target of 450MLD, there is a chance that the National Department of Water and Sanitation may impose even more stringent restrictions on Cape Town in November. The City of Cape Town’s website is alive with information about how the impending water crisis affects everything from attending sporting events to washing pets. Cape Town’s stated ambition is to restrict personal water use to 50 litres a day, including three litres for drinking, nine for flushing the toilet, and 10 for a daily shower. (A poster distributed through the Cape Town website provides ways to save additional water. A sponge bath cuts six litres from the daily allotment.)  A photo of a Cape Town reservoir. On 13 March, the government of Cape Town announced new measures to conserve water. Since 2014, the city has installed 115 automated pressure zones, designed to reduce consumption, in part by keeping pressure at a level that protects pipes from bursting and leaks. September 2018 Volume 24 I Number 7 This crisis did not develop overnight. According to NASA, “Population growth and a lack of new infrastructure have exacerbated the current water shortage. Between 1995 and 2018, Cape Town’s population swelled by roughly 80 per cent. During the same period, dam storage increased by just 15 per cent.” NASA’s website shares imagery showing the decrease in capacity in Cape Town’s six major reservoirs from January 2014, when Theewaterskloof Dam, the largest of the six reservoirs, was at full capacity, to January 2018. During that period, the dam fell from full to just 27 per cent of total capacity. Some scientists suggest that this shortage is the direct result of three consecutive years of drought, circumstances that are unlikely to return to Cape Town in 1 000 years, and others suggest that a resurgent rainy season can restore the reservoirs and avert disaster. “We have always had a level of water restrictions in place as we are situated in a water-scarce region and we will continue to have restrictions in place,” says Cllr Xanthea Limberg, the City’s mayoral committee member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services; and Energy. “Our tough conditions remain,” Limberg says. “It is difficult to predict how much winter rain for 2018 (our main rain season) we will receive, and also what will happen in 2019. We are therefore focusing on stretching our limited supplies and finding ways to augment water supply through groundwater usage, recycling, and temporary reverse osmosis modular desalination plants.” Certainly, the tone in Cape Town remains upbeat. Its webpage’s “Vision for Homes and Families” promises, “Cape Town has been one of the fastest growing cities in South Africa in terms of urbanisation and we think it is quite clear why everyone wants to live, work, and explore in Cape Town. We want all our citizens to have roofs over their heads and food in their bellies.” www.plumbingafrica.co.za