Advancing closer towards water security and water sensitivity, improving basic water and sanitation services in informal settlements, as well as integrating and diversifying waste management are among the City of Cape Town’s key priorities identified over the next five years. The 30-day public comment period for the City’s proposed Integrated Waste Management and Water Services Sector Plans, that will direct the investment towards achieving these goals, opened on Tuesday, 26 October 2021. Read more below:
The City of Cape Town is encouraging the public to comment on the draft Water Services Development Plan 2022 – 2027 and the Integrated Waste Management Plan 2022 – 2027 which sets out how it intends to achieve its objectives over the next five years.
These sector plans are a component of the City’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which guides and informs all decisions and priorities as well as planning and development in the City over the next five years.
As part of the efforts to encourage participation and foster meaningful engagement, the public will, for the first time, have the opportunity to use the City’s Collaboration Platform to interact virtually with City officials to discuss and share their ideas and comments on the draft sector plans. The deadline for submissions is Friday, 26 November 2021.
The draft Water Services Development Plan 2022 – 2027
This plan is a legislative requirement. It also needs to be reported to the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) as per the Water Services Act.
Key elements of the plan include:
- Sustained focus on implementing the New Water Programme,which aims to provide an additional 300 million litres of water per day through desalination, water reuse and ground water, to help navigate future drought shocks.
- Significant investment into reticulation infrastructure as part of the measures to address pollution of inland water bodies. This includes an accelerated water and sewer pipe replacement programme over eight years as well as refurbishing pump stations, with a focus on the top 20 strategic facilities, to help reduce sewer spills.
- Ongoing upgrades and extensions of wastewater treatment works to cater for growth and development, and ensuring treated effluent is compliant with licence requirements.
- Enhancing basic water and sanitation services in informal settlements, wherever legally and technically permitted.
- Improving the planning and implementation of asset management across all branches.
- Support for innovation and use of smart and cutting edge technology, in both infrastructure upgrades and billing/metering systems.
‘Water and Sanitation are services that impact on us all on a daily basis, and the department has set out plans for how to achieve commitments towards water security and water sensitivity. This includes the City’s New Water Programme (NWP), which forms part of the Water Strategy: Our Shared Water Future, and to build resilience to the effects of climate change, and future droughts that are expected to be more frequent and severe, and to ensure a safe, reliable water supply for generations to come.
‘In addition, the health of waterways remains a priority for the City, and therefore, we will continue to invest in sanitation infrastructure. While these investments are vital, it is important for all of us to remember that we collectively need to work together to help address and reduce sewer overflows and blockages, and looking after the infrastructure by thinking twice about what is flushed down toilets and rinsed down sinks. We also ask that residents report missing manhole covers and report any dumping of objects into the sewer system through manholes should they see this happening.
‘We remain committed to improving basic water and sanitation services in informal settlements wherever possible and we will continue to work with colleagues in the Human Settlements Department to achieve this.
‘Overall this sector plan is applicable for all, as we all have a relationship with water, whether living or doing business in Cape Town. The Water Service Development Plan (WSDP) is your opportunity to influence priorities for the running, development and maintenance of our water and sanitation infrastructure over the next five-year IDP period. Take time and submit your comments,’ said Alderman Limberg.
