New water restriction tariffs hit Cape Town: what you need to know

[Pox]

right so they saying it's cheaper to buy a desalination plant that relies on eskom power to secure our water for the future instead of a few million to dig an existing dam deeper to hold more water to see us through dry seasons.

Millions of truck loads. Not millions of Rands for the trucks.

You have to buy a couple if thousand trucks and excavators and then fuel them.

There conclusion was that it was practically impossible.

 

[spiff]

Yes, grey water would be easiest as you could set up a system that automatically and behind the scenes fills up the toilet cistern with used bath water, shower water or dish washing / laundry water. All you need is another cistern to collect the grey water which can then feed the toilet cistern as necessary. One bath/shower alone is enough water for quite a few toilet flushes. A cistern the size of your geyser would work fine.

Ultimately, a waterless toilet would be ideal though - Buckminster Fuller patented one in 1938 as part of his dymaxion bathroom:

https://overcupbooks.com/blogs/over...-ode-to-buckminster-fullers-dymaxion-bathroom

Because the excrement is shrink-wrapped there is no smell and it's hygienic. You have a truck that comes around and collects your toilet bin once a week and takes it to a biofuel power generating plant where it is converted into electricity. Of course this sort of idea can't work if just one person wants to do it, it requires implementation on a large scale.

now how ironic is that!! waterless toilets already exists in Cape Town.

back in 2006 - the company I worked was approached by a guy wanting to manufacture a waterless toilet system for low cost housing & squatter camps. quite a big project - in fact about R4.5m worth, he got the anc government involved and all seemed good to go. then SA won the soccer world cup and all anc funding disappeared overnight! the poor guy was left to to his own devices and had to get private investors.

we designed & manufactured the 5 molds - rather large 2 ton molds and we produced the waterless toilet as in the pic below.

this was featured on the E tv news as well at the time. the problem was that the anc wanted nothing to do with it after the world cup - they could not / would not see that it was way better / cheaper than installing water borne sewage systems in all the low cost housing areas.

even the DA aren't interested! Patricia De Lille came to our factory to see for herself - never heard from her since!

imaging how much water could have or could be saved - had they installed these toilets in all the low cost houses since 2006?

I'll try and find the Etv interview if anyone is interested?

the pic is one of the first samples we produced in 2007

 

[MidnightWizard]

Practically

Millions of truck loads. Not millions of Rands for the trucks.
You have to buy a couple if thousand trucks and excavators and then fuel them.
There conclusion was that it was practically impossible.

Who is THEIR ?
Any idea how many truck loads get removed in -- OPEN_CAST_MINING .... ?
ANY idea how big and how deep the Kimberley big hole is ...... ?

Cape Town is WAY WAY past any kind of "QUICK-FIX"

 

[StrontiumDog]

I can't verify the accuracy of this info but it was posted in FB group WATER SHEDDING WESTERN CAPE.

According to our esteemed Minister of Water and Sanitation, Cape Town has not done enough to save water, therefore does not deserve money to assist with the drought. For the city to take action and reallocate money, certain steps needed to happen. One was the declaration of being a disaster area. Despite requests going back to 2015, that only happened in May 2017. Eventually a trickle of money flowed to fix issues that should have been undertaken by the DWS. Even today, Malusi Gigaba has not given permission so that the city can start implementing its plans in place to avoid Day Zero though eventually Mokonyane has promised for work to happen on the Berg River Voelvlei augmentation scheme and the raising of the Clanwilliam Dam to be ready in the middle of 2019. The DWS gets a budget of R18 billion a year. The Western Cape gets little or nothing of that budget, except for R100 Million recently which equates to less than a per cent.
I do not feel the City and the Premier deserve the bashing they get in this group. We would have run out of water long ago except for their hard work. From a country average of 235 liters per person down to close to 87 is amazing. Give credit where credit is due.

 

[C4Cat]

I can't verify the accuracy of this info but it was posted in FB group WATER SHEDDING WESTERN CAPE.

DA supporters are constantly trying to shift blame away from the DA provincial government and onto the ANC, it's embarrassing how transparent their attempts are. Even though national government does play a part, the above information does not sound true to me. Even if it was true though, and the province wasn't getting an adequate share of the budget, the province should have been highlighting this and kicking up a fuss about it, not leaving it up to facebook warriors to 'expose the truth'

 

[Gordon_R]

DA supporters are constantly trying to shift blame away from the DA provincial government and onto the ANC, it's embarrassing how transparent their attempts are. Even though national government does play a part, the above information does not sound true to me. Even if it was true though, and the province wasn't getting an adequate share of the budget, the province should have been highlighting this and kicking up a fuss about it, not leaving it up to facebook warriors to 'expose the truth'

The amount of victim blaming on this thread is astonishing! Change a few words, and this comment would fit nicely on the Harvey Weinstein discussion.

 

[C4Cat]

The amount of victim blaming on this thread is astonishing! Change a few words, and this comment would fit nicely on the Harvey Weinstein discussion.

The only victims here are the people of Cape Town, nobody is blaming them (except the DA who blames them for using too much water). Unless you somehow think the DA is a victim despite being in control of the provincial government for years.

 

[Gordon_R]

Back to more factual context: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/art...e-needs-half-a-billion-rand-for-water-crisis/

MP demands to know why National Disaster Management Centre refused requests for help, yet underspent its budget by R300-million. By Suné Payne for GROUNDUP.

The Western Cape government needs another half a billion rand to deal with the current water crisis.

That was the main outcome of a high-level joint meeting held in Parliament on Wednesday by the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation.

It was made clear at the meeting that the province faces an uphill challenge and discussion at times became heated over delays and a perceived lack of response from stakeholders.

DA MP Kevin Mileham asked why R300-million was underspent by the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) and yet the agency had declined requests for help.

The head of the NDMC, Dr Mmaphaka Tau, said certain conditions had to be met before declaring a disaster area and an emergency relief grant of R500-million would have to be released within three months of that declaration. The grant could only be used for disaster relief programmes.

Graham Paulse from the Western Cape government said that although the National Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has given the province nearly R75-million to deal with the crisis, another R542-million is required for the drought-affected areas.

DA MP Leonard Basson told Cogta Minister Des van Rooyen, “I am not satisfied by the contribution of Cogta only giving R74-million with a shortfall of R541-million.” Basson also questioned if the Department of Water and Sanitation had contributed any funds.

Some DA members said the water crisis has been pending for three years, and they questioned why no legislation provided for relief from Cogta. They complained that legislation kept the department from doing its job and assisting the Western Cape. Van Rooyen agreed that legislation on the provision of emergency relief needs to be reconsidered.

Paulse said municipalities have been asked to reprioritise their budgets to come up with this amount.

Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral Committee member for water and waste management, said in response that the City of Cape Town was already looking at ways of making its funds available by using cash reserves, budget cuts and additional loans. However, she said the City had to wait for a response from National Treasury for permission to hold a special budget appropriations meeting to authorise the movement of funds to water projects.

Meetings to consider redirecting funds are held twice a year, in August and January. She explained that in order to reprioritise funding now, a special budget appropriations meeting was needed and permission was required from National Treasury. The delay in proceeding with this meeting angered some committee members.

Edit:

I can't verify the accuracy of this info but it was posted in FB group WATER SHEDDING WESTERN CAPE.

Edit: That FB post is paraphrasing what the DM article says about the Cogta meeting.

 

[Gordon_R]

And for those who keep saying the City of Cape Town is not doing anything: https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/opinion/we-have-a-plan-we-will-supply-water-11731410

We have a plan, we will supply water
OPINION / 26 OCTOBER 2017, 9:13PM / PATRICIA DE LILLE

Over the past few months we have all become acutely aware of the severity of the drought crisis that is currently gripping our region.
This is an unprecedented situation which none of us has seen in our lifetime.

I want to thank and commend Capetonians for their great efforts and for being partners on this journey by saving water.

This week we managed to bring consumption down to 585 million litres of collective use per day, from pre-restriction consumption levels of 1.1 billion litres per day.

This has been no easy feat and it has been a massive adaptation exercise with the help of residents, combined with our pressure management interventions, leak management programme, and the installation of water management devices.

If we keep this up and save even more, we will continue to stretch the water left in our dams while the City gets on with work on the augmentation plans for additional water supplies.

I want to assure residents again that we will not allow a well-run city to run out of water and this will be achieved through progressive savings and our multi-layered augmentation plan to build water resilience.

What we are currently facing is not unique. Many cities around the world have to deal with the impacts of climate change.

The fact is that this multi-portfolio programme to supply water from alternative sources which the City is undertaking is beyond our constitutional mandate and competencies.

Even so, we will not let Capetonians down, and our Water Resilience Plan is progressing to make sure of that.

I would like to thank the specialists who have come on board to help the City, developing the specifications for this highly complex augmentation programme.

This is being managed on a daily basis, with extensive City resources being ploughed into this work.

I am making a commitment today that we will be improving our efforts to communicate directly with all Capetonians on our augmentation plans.

Please expect detailed communication from us on how you will be affected and how we are progressing with augmentation in the coming weeks.

This information will be distributed directly to households and communities in a simple, readable format.

Councillors and ratepayers’ associations will be key to this communication effort, and I will be on the ground showing residents what we are doing.

Starting on Sunday, I will be undertaking a range of site visits and I will take the media into my confidence to help us illustrate the progress of the City’s demand management and augmentation work.

But my message today is clear: we have a plan, we will supply water. But Capetonians, your help is vital and so we need you to keep saving.

I am continually assessing the augmentation plan along with highly skilled technical teams.

There are 24 tenders in the tender demand plan, and these procurement processes are being run in parallel with one another.

We are using accelerated tender processes, but everyone needs to play by the rules.

The Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) is very clear that we need to follow competitive processes, but we also need to get the best products for the city.

Because we are trying to comply with the law, we will need to hold a special adjustment budget meeting.

We have the money for the augmentation schemes in the system, but the biggest stumbling block in our plans is getting approval from Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba in terms of section 29 of the MFMA.

On August 28, I wrote to Minister Gigaba to request approval for departures from MFMA regulations, which section 170 makes provision for to allow us to proceed with a budgetary amendment.

My request has not been responded to by the minister, except for officials in Treasury asking for clarity, which we gave, and in the past two months there have been numerous follow-ups to the minister’s office and an appeal to the Presidency.

I am appealing to the minister directly to please respond to my correspondence to allow us to have a special adjustment budget.

If we get no response from the minister, we will have no choice but to proceed with a special adjustment budget next week to enable us to proceed as fast as we can with our water augmentation plans.

We can confirm once again that our augmentation plans comprise desalination, water re-use and ground water abstraction, and we will incrementally scale up all of the various schemes to build resilience.

We are not only building water resilience in the immediate future, but also looking ahead to the years to come and how we ensure water security beyond 2018.

This is where our augmentation plans are:

Groundwater abstraction:

There are currently four identified sites for which planning is well under way to get supply from the Atlantis and Silwerstroom, Cape Flats, Cape Peninsula and Hottentots-Holland aquifers.

The new water from these schemes will increase incrementally, and over time, the yield extracted from these sources will rise to 100 million litres of water a day from these four sites.

The City has already managed to increase the production capacity of the existing Atlantis and Silwer- stroom aquifer by 5 million litres a day.

There are seven tenders in progress at various stages of the procurement process for the aquifer schemes, including drilling, mechanical work and civil works tenders.

Desalination:

For modular land-based desalination plants, there are currently eight tenders in progress in the tender procurement process.

These are for the following sites:

Hout Bay - to produce 4 million litres per day.

Granger Bay - to produce 8 million litres of water per day.

Red Hill/Dido Valley - to produce 2 million litres of water per day.

Strandfontein - to produce 7 million litres per day.

Monwabisi - to produce 7 million litres per day.

Harmony Park - to produce 8 million litres per day.

Cape Town harbour - to produce 50 million litres per day.

The universal sites - to produce 20 million litres per day.

Water from the desalination sites will be increased incrementally in the system from February.

Desalination from Cape Town harbour via barges will yield first water from April 2018. The plan is to augment up to 50 million litres per day from this source.

In terms of the permanent land-based desalination plant at Cape Town harbour, with an estimated yield of 50 million litres per day, this is expected to come online from May 2018.

Water re-use:

For Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works, the pipeline work has already started and the yield will rise incrementally from this source to produce 10 million litres per day.

We are also progressing with design and planning to supply potable water from the Potsdam, Cape Flats, Macassar and Athlone wastewater treatment works.

We are working on these plans to build extra capacity in preparation for another low-rainfall winter.

These schemes are due to come online after April 2018.

At the same time, the City is exploring a range of further options to extend the new water resources on a more permanent basis as part of our resilience efforts.

A project of this scale has never been done before, and we are working on these plans as fast as possible while the people of Cape Town save.

I must thank the City staff on the ground and in the water resilience team for working day and night to drive down demand and deliver these projects.

Last week, I visited Hillstar and personally said thank you.

Mr Speaker, I wish to also report to council that the Section 80 water resilience advisory committee has thus far met on three occasions since council gave them a mandate for its creation at the May council meeting.

The committee is chaired by the mayoral committee member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services, councillor Xanthea Limberg.

This committee, created in terms of the Municipal Structures Act, includes representatives from our four local universities, from business, from civil society, from neighbouring municipalities and from sector development organisations.

The committee is receiving reports on the water resilience plan’s implementation and is providing feedback that is being used for refinements.

This past month I also had a fruitful meeting with the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, who gave her commitment to ensure that the department helps the City to acquire the various water licences for new schemes as speedily as possible.

The City has applied for four water licences from the national government, but to date we have received one licence.

 

[theratman]

And for those who keep saying the City of Cape Town is not doing anything: https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/opinion/we-have-a-plan-we-will-supply-water-11731410

No one is saying they are not doing anything, they just doing everything too late. They said they'd have a solution up by the end of August / September..

What ever they end up doing it needs to be a long term solution. Rather have too much water than too little.

As for blaming the national government, erm, that's an easy way out. Yes they have some part to blame but for a party that loves to blab on about how Cape Town is the best run city etc etc they sure are poor in a crisis.

I still picture De Lille on her knees every night begging for rain.

 

[MrGray]

The dirty hidden fact is that the people of the Western Cape pay R195 billion in taxes annually to national government, but are only allocated R50 billion for provincial and municipal expenditure in return. This is half of what is allocated to KZN.

You have to wonder why the provincial and municipal leadership is so quiet about this, choosing instead to accuse the local populace of using too much and declaring a "new normal" which seems to include the prospect of a major metropolis water supply system collapse, and rationed drinking water doled out under armed guard. Something is very wrong here.

 

[Nanfeishen]

And for those who keep saying the City of Cape Town is not doing anything

Thats is all well and good, but why did we have to reach these levels in the first place.

There were ample warnings of the water crisis C.T. would face through the years, those proposals/projects should have been supplementing our water supply already, not at some time in the next year.

The city shouldnt be scrabbling for solutions, those solutions should have been in place, in the event of , not after, the crisis.

 

[chrisc]

Xanthea Limberg, the mayoral committee member for water services, has had her finger up her bum for months. Instead of consulting engineers to draw up plans for alternative water solutions, she engaged lawyers, who know f-all about water reticulation

The direct result of this was ridiculous demands for placement and delivery of alternative water systems. Despite being told over and over again that her department's suggestions were unworkable, it took her 6 months to change her mind

And in the background, the City of Cape Town's PR dept is trying to put a spin on this SNAFU situation, bleating about "legalities" while ignoring the advice of engineers who know what they are talking about

 

[MidnightWizard]

Raised

I can't verify the accuracy of this info but it was posted in FB group
WATER SHEDDING WESTERN CAPE.

the raising of the Clanwilliam Dam to be ready in the middle of 2019.

Far as I know this is already underway or has been completed ?

 

[chrisc]

And may I add that there was NO WATER in several streets in Plumstead from 19th to 21st October. My near neighbour, who suffers from ezcema, was busy taking a shower when the water stopped without notice. Being unable to complete his ablutions, his skin erupted in blisters. The direct result of this was a night in Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic with injections, etc - R 7500 worth

A complaint to City of CT went unanswered

 

[MidnightWizard]

Brothers in Calumny

Xanthea Limberg, the mayoral committee member for water services, has had her finger up her bum for months. Instead of consulting engineers to draw up plans for alternative water solutions, she engaged lawyers, who know f-all about water reticulation
And in the background, the City of Cape Town's PR dept is trying to put a spin on this SNAFU situation, bleating about "legalities" while ignoring the advice of engineers who know what they are talking about

The DA apparatchiks are as COMPLETELY out of their depth as are the ANC

A COMPENDIUM OF ERRORS and IDIOTS !

 

[MidnightWizard]

Chasing your tale .....

As for the other comment about hollowing out table mountain from someone else...:wtf:

OK then
Please Mr Bright Spark -- tell us YOUR plan ?

 

[MidnightWizard]

Hung ......

they should hang their heads in shame for all time, no matter how much they point their fingers at their citizens for actually using the services for which they pay rates and taxes.

Far as I am concerned they should be hung from the nearest lamppost

THIS "little" debacle has put paid to ANY HOPES FOR 2019 ....!!!!!!!

 

[Zoomzoom]

Let's be clear, the current water crisis is man-made and a result of pure mismanagement and failure of planning. It should not be necessary to live in a state of permanent water insufficiency and it certainly should not be "the new normal" to have to shower in spurts in a bucket and not flush the toilet. Israel has very little natural surface water but they have an abundance of potable water due to proper planning and implementation of technology. We should not regress to living in the caveman era and just shrug our shoulders about this "new normal". Is this really what 6000+ years of technology and civilization have come to? It is a shocking failure on the part of the politicians we trust (and pay handsomely) to maintain our civilization, and if Cape Town really does become the first major metropolis in modern history to completely run out of water due to their incompetence they should hang their heads in shame for all time, no matter how much they point their fingers at their citizens for actually using the services for which they pay rates and taxes.

THIS!!!!!

Because let's face it, the bottom line is that we PAY for the city / municipality / government to supply certain services on our behalf because (theoretically) it is more efficient and cost-effective for a central agency to do these things than it is for individual citizens to do it. And it is the availability of these things that allow for all the infrastructure of civilization as we know it. If these services fail .. well take a look at the rest of Africa for a glimpse into the future ...

 

[EMAM]

And we're watching millions of litres go down the drain. Logged at the council 2 hours ago.
On the plus side, we've filled up our pool.
Anyone want water?