Cape Town - With climate change exacerbating the severity of environmental disasters and further threatening water security in the province, stakeholders on Wednesday attended the Western Cape Government (WCG) Water Indaba to learn how to better manage water demands.
Coinciding with World Water Day on Wednesday, the indaba began with the City’s Water Innovation Exhibition, where the WCG unveiled its 15-year Integrated Drought and Water Response Plan which it hoped would help to better manage water demand as the climate crisis continues to make the water supply unpredictable.
Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said: “It is a tired cliché to say ‘water is life’, but it is absolutely true. We came very close to this truth in Cape Town with Day Zero in 2019, the result of a drought that started in 2015.
“We have since asked ourselves what we should do differently to prevent a similar situation in future… This 15-Year Response Plan is our answer.”
Gerhard Gerber, head of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said: “Increasing water stress as a result of climate change is a global risk, but South Africa, and the Western Cape in particular, is especially at risk.”
This was seen in recent disaster trends. Gerber said every year since 2016 the province had had floods, drought challenges, longer fire seasons and other disasters.
To deal with these disasters, they created the 15-year Response Plan – a costed action plan.
The plan’s short-term outlook focuses on drought response, and its long-term outlook on resilience planning with water re-use, rain water harvesting, wastewater reclamation and diversifying water sources.
All speakers said rainfall for next winter was important to prevent water restrictions as the threat of a drought loomed over the province in the coming years. While it may not happen this year, Premier Alan Winde warned that “a drought is coming” and said the actions, plans and innovations were critical to prepare the province.
“The indaba is to proactively deliberate on ways to make the province more water secure and showcase innovations to address water scarcity.”
Provincial head of Water and Sanitation, Ntombizanele Bila-Mupariwa, said: “Current water availability is sufficient. The City of Cape Town dams (Western Cape Water Supply System) are at 55.14% due to below-average rainfall during winter.”
