Parched Cape budgets R3bn to fight off Day Zero

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille declared the province a disaster area as it tried to deal with its worst water shortage in 113 years.

The provincial government might need as much as R3-billion to fund projects aimed at mitigating water shortages and other effects of the drought‚ Zille’s spokesman‚ Michael Mpofu‚ told TimesLive on Monday.

• Western Cape faces worst water shortage in 113 yearsWestern Cape Premier Helen Zille yesterday declared the province a disaster area as it battled its worst water shortage in 113 years.

He said the money would be “re-prioritised” from the budgets of provincial government departments.

Mpofu said the province was doing all it could to prevent the advent of “Day Zero” — the day on which the taps run completely dry.

• Water tank and drilling guys loving the drought as profits soarCape Town's water crisis has seen many companies' cash dry up, while the same crisis has seen new businesses profit.

Zille’s office said the province would maintain the disaster status for three months. “The disaster declaration will accelerate the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre’s ‘Avoiding Day Zero’ project‚” said Zille.

The project would focus on demand management‚ winter water conservation and groundwater exploitation.

Zille said the drought was the worst since 1904.

Mpofu said the R3-billion figure was provisional because the future could not be reliably predicted.

“Funding will be re-prioritised provincially and‚ should further assistance be needed‚ the province will approach the national Treasury and the Department of Water and Sanitation.”

The province’s immediate interventions will include “drilling of boreholes at hospitals‚ starting in the metro‚ to be followed by schools in high-risk water-scarce areas”.

• Western Cape declared a disaster area amid worst drought in more than a centuryPremier Helen Zille has declared the Western Cape a disaster area due to the relentless drought.

The province will also be fast-tracking the environmental impact assessment for the use of a mobile desalination plant “using existing water inlet flows used for the reactors at the Koeberg [nuclear power station] site”‚ and drilling into the Table Mountain aquifer.

“In the past year‚ at least R27-million has been re-prioritised for interventions in areas that were declared local disasters. In January 2016‚ parts of the West Coast and Central Karoo were declared agricultural drought disaster areas‚” said Mpofu.

Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said: “We have identified the Table Mountain group aquifer‚ the Berg-River Voelvlei Dam augmentation scheme and exploration of new technologies‚ such as desalination‚ water re-use and rainwater harvesting‚ to assist us in building a water-secure future for the province and to mitigate the effects of drought.”

The declaration of the state of emergency was made a week after Cape Town’s mayoral committee recommended level-4 water restrictions amid fears of a drier winter for Cape Town.

The city administration has appealed to residents to use no more than 100 litres of water per person per day.

Colin Deiner‚ chief of the province’s Disaster Management and Fire Brigade Services‚ said the province had short-‚ medium- and long-term projects under way.

Deiner said short-term projects — such as the drilling of boreholes at hospitals — would require the Department of Health to re-prioritise its budget to fund the projects.

Tammy de Decker‚ spokesman for Western Cape MEC for economic opportunities Alan Winde‚ said the department was worried that further water restrictions “might pose a threat” to the thousands of people who depend on the jobs created by farming during the annual harvest.

“All farmers in drought-declared areas are eligible to apply for assistance‚” De Decker said.

About 800 farmers have already received assistance from the Western Cape department of agriculture which bought fodder for their animals.

De Decker said the focus of drought relief would be to support farmers by buying fodder.

“The Western Cape department of agriculture has assisted 564 smallholders and 234 commercial farmers with fodder‚” she said.