Cape Town facing water crisis

After two years of the least rainfall on record, Cape Town is in danger of running out of   water, with levels in the city’s six major dams expected to become critically low before the winter season arrives in May

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300km 200 miles

Cape Town

WESTERN CAPE

Pretoria

SOUTH AFRICA

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City population: 3.7 million

Daily water use: 750m litres

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Table Mountain

CAPE TOWN

*Levels as of Mar 20, 2017. Useable water is 10 percent less than dam’s level

False Bay

Strand

20km 12 miles


Voëlvlei

164 Dam capacity
Million cubic metres

26.9 Dam level
Percent*

Berg River

Worcester

Wemmershoek
59
35.9

Paarl

Stellenbosch

Berg River
130
37.7

Steenbras Upper
32
56.1

Lower
33.5
32.7

Theewaterskloof
480
23.7

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Western Cape dam levels (percent)

100 
50
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

March 20, 2017: 28.6%

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Emergency water supply schemes under consideration

Pump 60m litres of water per day from Berg River to Voëlvlei Dam. Cost: 274 million rand ($21.6m)

Implement scheme to reuse water, generating extra 220m litres per day. Cost: 4.5 billion rand ($355m)

Build desalination plant to supply average of 450 litres of water per day. Cost: 15 billion rand ($1.2bn)

Tap aquifers from Table Mountain, possibly yielding 50-100m litres per day. Project still being costed

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Sources: City of Cape Town, Department of Water and Sanitation 

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