SAICE WC Branch The South African Institution of Civil Engineering Western Cape Branch

Mr Mike Killick, the Director of Bulk Services at the City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate, presented the City’s progress on the New Water Programme on Wednesday, 22 February. The presentation, hosted at UCT, was attended by a mix of professionals, academics and civil engineering students.

Mr Killick started the presentation by describing the bulk water infrastructure supplying the City of Cape Town. Currently, the City of Cape Town’s total allocation is 399million m3/annum, 98% of which is from surface runoff. Presenting annual inflows into the WCWSS (Western Cape Water Supply System) dams over the past century, he showed how Cape Town is prone to droughts. The 2014 to 2018 drought (a 1-in-590 year event) galvanised the City to implement alternative water schemes. He further noted that 2022 had the 10th lowest runoff over the past 100 years, suggesting that we may be heading into another drought period.

He moved on to explain the Water Strategy, which is the City’s response to making the City more resilient and drought-resistant. The Water Strategy looks at five key commitments: Safe Access to Water and Sanitation; Wise [Water] Use; Sufficient, Reliable Water; Shared Benefits from Regional Water Resources; and A Water Sensitive City. The New Water Programme falls under the third commitment to ensure ‘Sufficient, reliable water’ by augmenting the current water supply with diverse alternative sources, namely ground water, desalination, and water reuse. The New Water Programme plans to add 300Ml/day to the current water supply scheme by 2030. He noted that there is little scope left for surface water schemes. The focus in the future will be on reuse and desalination schemes.

Mr Killick showed a number of sobering graphs predicting the impacts of climate change. We don’t know if climate change will result in a gradual or step-down change to surface runoff. This could mean that future water restrictions are imposed even with the Water Strategy being successfully implemented.

The presentation concluded with a brief update on a number of projects underway, further studies being undertaken, and the Mayor’s ‘Sanitation and Inland Water Quality Priority Programme’.

SAICE WC would like to thank Mr Killick for taking the time to present to us.

If you missed the presentation, a recording thereof will be on our YouTube shortly.