Following the most recent drought in Cape Town, residents reduced water use, reused greywater and started to tap into groundwater for their needs.Groundwater is typically a fallback resource in times of drought. Hence unmonitored and unregulated abstraction of groundwater, especially under an uncertain changing climate, poses a risk to water security.
To better understand what was happening to the city’s groundwater supply, AB InBev funded a pilot project which included a citizen science survey and initiated a groundwater monitoring network in Cape Town.This work has already improved understanding of groundwater use in some residential and industrial areas and has set in motion a growing monitoring network that will help to inform the management of groundwater abstraction in the greater Cape Town area.
To help ensure that Cape Town’s groundwater supply is managed sustainably into the future, the Danish government has committed to a two-year sponsorship.The partnership between AB InBev, WWF and the Embassy of Denmark involves an R11m agreement to take this work to scale under the banner of the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership.
“We would like to express our gratitude to AB InBev and the Danish Embassy, both essential partners in funding groundwater activities, for their contribution towards establishing the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership. This partnership will help to safeguard the smallest and most westerly water source area in South Africa and help us to build resilience in the face of climate change which, climate scientists tell us, is likely to bring with it more severe droughts in future,” said Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa.
