Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has confirmed that the city is considering a new levy to help raise funds to avert the drought crippling the city. Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, de Lille said that the funds would be used as additional funding for its water augmentation scheme, reports Times Live.
“I will be honest with you‚ we have been considering a water levy or a water surcharge‚ amongst the other funding mechanisms to fund our augmentation schemes‚” said De Lille.
“This is all to avoid Day Zero. But any proposal that we put on the table that will enable us to survive this crisis will be and must be subject to public participation. So when we are ready to [present] any proposal that will impact on the water uses‚ we will [ensure] public participation‚” she added.
De lille said that the City was currently in talks with a number of local and international banks to help raise the funding for seven new projects.
The first of these projects (including six desalination plants, and one water recycling plant) is expected to be introduced by February 2018.
“While the good water saving efforts had pushed [Day Zero] out from March 2018‚ many residents took this as a sign that there was some reprieve. The fact that it has moved forward to [May 6] is due to consumption increasing to 602-million litres of water per day this past week‚” said De Lille.
