Cape Town’s ‘Invested in Hope’ draft budget 2025/26 outlines a R5,03 bn capital budget for water and sanitation over the 2025/26 financial year to drive key priorities to benefit its residents.
The City will continue to make record-setting investments in Cape Town’s water and sanitation infrastructure. The budget, now out for public participation, will provide the directorate with another R5bn boost for this coming financial year – this is more than double the R2bn spent on water and sanitation in the 2022/23 financial year.
Over the next three years R16,6 billion is allocated to water and sanitation.
‘Investing in water and sanitation infrastructure and services to benefit our residents is a non-negotiable for the City of Cape Town. We remain committed to providing reliable services to our residents while investing in infrastructure to also cater for a growing city. We encourage the public to comment on the draft budget. We want to hear from you,’ said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.
Proposed 2025/2026 Water and Sanitation budget in a nutshell:
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
The plan is to spend R39,75 million on new taps and toilets for informal settlements in addition to services already provided.
NEW WATER PROGRAMME
Surface water currently makes up approximately 98% of our drinking water, but by 2040 we expect groundwater, desalination, and water reuse to account for a full 25% of supply. This is in addition to the removal of alien invasive plant species in our catchment areas.
We are bringing online alternative water sources that will serve our growing population. The directorate will work towards implementing the new water projects that include desalination, aquifer abstraction and our Faure New Water Programme. We are set to increase supply by an extra 300 million litres of water from new water sources every day soon after 2030.
We plan to invest R517,31 million on major infrastructure projects, the bulk being aquifer projects which form part of the NWP, including:
· Cape Flats Aquifer Recharge and related projects
· Atlantis Aquifer
· Table Mountain Group Aquifer and related projects
WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS (WWTWs)
R1,77 billion is estimated to be spent on extensions and upgrades at WWTWs over the next financial year. A further amount of R1,74 billion is provided for the 2026/27 financial year.
WWTW extensions projects are in place to expand the capacity of these key facilities:
· Potsdam: Upgrade from 47 Ml/d to 100 Ml/d (construction stage)
· Athlone: Refurbishment and treatment process upgrade Phase 1 (construction stage)
· Bellville: Final Phase of refurbishment and treatment process upgrade (construction stage)
· Macassar: Upgrade from 34 Ml/d to 80 Ml/d (construction procurement phase)
In addition to this, other WWTW upgrades include the:
· Wesfleur: Aeration system replacement/refurbishment (construction stage)
· Wildevoëlvlei: Refurbishment and upgrade of the mechanical sludge dewatering facility (construction procurement phase)
PROACTIVE EFFORTS TO PREVENT SEWER OVERFLOWS
R1,07 billion for various projects is proposed to help bolster proactive efforts to assist with preventing sewer overflows:
· R209,7 million on upgrades/refurbishment of sewer pump stations.
· R400,5 million on replacing 100km of sewer pipes.
· R504,9 million to tackle sewer spills by upgrading bulk sewers in Cape Flats, Philippi, Milnerton and Gordons Bay.
INVESTING IN RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY TO PROPERTIES
R242,7 million on replacing 50km of water pipes.
HELP BUILD RESILIENCE DURING LOAD-SHEDDING
The plan is to spend R31,5 million on UPS installations for pump stations.
IMPROVING OUR LIVEABLE WATERWAYS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FLOODING AND POLLUTION ABATEMENT
R144,3 million is planned to be invested including the following projects:
· Upgrade of Manenberg Canal
· Sir Lowry’s Pass River upgrade
· Zandvlei Canal upgrade
· Bayside Canal upgrade
In total, it is planned that R472,9 million will be spent on these projects over the next three FYs.