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CPT Water Crisis: National government says it will help extract final 10% of dams
The Cape Town water crisis is starting to reach peak panic mode. National government has now spoken out on what they are going to do to help in terms of getting access to every last drop of water.
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Day Zero is getting closer and closer and each dam report so far has brought with it the reminder that the last 10% of water in the dams is not useable. Well, the national Department of Water and Sanitation wants to help out the local government with using that last 10%
The Department’s Trevor Balzer took to Twitter this weekend to announce the plans. Balzer is responsible for the department’s drought-intervention programme.
“We are preparing ourselves to be able to extract the last 10 percent from the Voëlvlei and Theewaterskloof [dams], and our construction teams will be working in those dams from the end of January onwards, so [that] we can extract all the water from what is commonly called ‘dead storage’.”
HuffPostSA spoke to Dr Kevin Winter as a result of the news. Winter is an academic and lecturer associated with the Future Water Research Institute. He says it makes sense to find ways to get out as much of the water as possible.
“As I understand it, the extraction head where water comes down is delinked [from] where the water is lying, so what they do is create channels so the water flows toward the extraction points, meaning you get a lot more than you would’ve got out of the 10 percent remaining in the dams.”
The department also revealed that it will be monitoring groundwater usage in the Western Cape. Currently, the farming sector uses large quantities of that water.
Winter also told HuffPostSA that although the situation is dire, a lot can happen in the next few months.
“The water situation is so uncertain at the moment. Yes, it’s not looking good at all, but a lot can happen in 90 days. There is already so much being done, and from experts that are not only local, but national and international. Personally, I can’t see a city of this size running out of water.”
Unfortunately, the City of Cape Town announced that the date for Day Zero is now April 12. This means the department has even less time to put their plan into action.
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