The City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate is ready to action its R5 billion Council-approved capital budget over the 2024/2025 financial year, which continues to drive key priorities to benefit residents. These include building Cape Town’s resilient water future, providing ongoing access to good quality drinking water, tackling sewer overflows and delivering adequate sanitation in informal settlements where possible.
Water and Sanitation’s 2024/25 total budget of R18 billion for the upcoming financial year speaks volumes. Of this, R5 billion is the capital budget and R13 billion is our operating budget. This shows the City is committed to doing the basics better for our communities when it comes to delivering and investing in water and sanitation services.
‘This capital budget is more than the previous 2023/2024 financial year, which saw R3,3 billion capital budget spent and invested in water and sanitation services to ultimately benefit our residents and city.
‘Thank you to our residents for contributing to the water and sanitation services. They do so both in behaviour – from being water wise to disposing of their waste correctly, not in our sewers – and by paying their municipal bills. Residents are assured their water tariffs are used to help provide and maintain reliable water and sanitation services in Cape Town for today and years to come,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Councillor Zahid Badroodien.
2024/2025 Water and Sanitation budget in a nutshell:
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
R38,25 million allocated for 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 by 2030.
R445 million has been allocated for major water resilience 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)
R2 billion is estimated to be spent on extensions and upgrades at WWTWs over the next financial year. This is planned to increase to R2,4 billion for 2025/26 financial year.
WWTW extensions will expand the capacity of 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 (Design Stage)
In addition to this, other WWTW upgrades include the:
· Wesfleur: Aeration system replacement/refurbishment (currently at awarding tender stage)
· Wildevoëlvlei: Refurbishment and upgrade of the mechanical sludge dewatering facility (tender evaluation stage)
PROACTIVE EFFORTS TO PREVENT SEWER OVERFLOWS
R1 billion for various projects is allocated to help bolster proactive efforts to assist with preventing sewer overflows:
· R154 million on upgrades/refurbishment of sewer pump stations.
· R385 million on replacing 100km of sewer pipes.
Communities that will benefit include Athlone, Belhar, Bellville South, Blaauwbergstrand, Blackheath, Boston, Claremont Constantia, Delft, Eerste River, Gugulethu, Heinz Park, Helderberg, Khayelitsha, Brackenfell, Kraaifontein, Kuils River, Langa, Lotus River, Melkbos, Ottery, Panorama, Parow, Plumstead, Ravensmead, Atlantis, Scottsville, Somerset West, Southfield, Strand, Table View, Uitsig, Wesbank and Wynberg.
· R526 million to tackle sewer spills by upgrading bulk sewers in Cape Flats, Philippi, Milnerton (Montague Gardens) and Gordon’s Bay.
INVESTING IN RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY TO PROPERTIES
R224 million on replacing 50km of water pipes.
Communities that will benefit include Hout Bay, Simon’s Town, Fish Hoek, Glencairn, Tokai, Ottery, Somerset West, Kuils River, Strand, Blouberg, Flamingo Vlei, Atlantis, Summer Greens, Kraaifontein, Bellville, Brackenfell, Durbanville, Loevenstein, Ravensmead, Churchill, Tygerdal, Parow Valley, Sea Point, Athlone, Claremont and Fairfield Estate.
HELP BUILD RESILIENCE DURING LOAD-SHEDDING
R127 million allocated for generators and UPS installations for sewer and water pump stations as well as wastewater treatment plants.
IMPROVING OUR WATERWAYS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FLOODING
R110 million is allocated to be invested in the following flood alleviation projects:
· Flood alleviation in Lourens River
· Macassar flood alleviation
· Sir Lowry’s Pass River upgrade
R27 million is allocated to be invested in the following pollution abatement projects:
· Zandvlei Canal upgrade
· Bayside Canal upgrade
In total, R237 million has been allocated to these projects over the next three FYs.
‘As we go into a new financial year, these remain key priorities for the City: building a water secure future, delivering clean, reliable drinking water and dignified sanitation services to residents in Cape Town as well as reducing sewer overflows and improving treating wastewater so that we safeguard our environment and improve inland water quality,’ said Councillor Badroodien.