This is the backdrop to local film‚ Place of Sweet Waters‚ which has been named one of four winners in a worldwide competition run by international charity WaterAid.
The film was shot by Capetonian Sven Harding.
Before Cape Town was settled by Europeans‚ the indigenous people called it Camissa‚ which means "place of sweet waters"‚ because of its abundant springs.
But as the film's narrator‚ urban ecologist Carol von Zeil‚ explains‚ in the late 19th century the water was thought to be carrying disease and tunnels were built to take it out to sea.
Von Zeil is the founder and director of Reclaim Camissa‚ which aims to find ways to use this water for the people of Cape Town.
Said Harding: "This film aims to raise awareness of this almost criminally neglected but desperately needed resource‚ in the hope that it might be reclaimed to help sustain Cape Town's booming and increasingly water-stressed population."
The four winning films are centred on the theme “The Future of Water” and are based in South Africa‚ the Philippines‚ Armenia and Sierra Leone.
Harding and the three other filmmakers‚ Vardan Hovhannisyan‚ Giselle Santos and Ibrahim S Kamara‚ received grants of up to £3‚000 to make their short films.
Harding‚ who went to art school and has a background in music video production‚ has made other environmental films like “Fashion without Chemicals” for Greenpeace in Amsterdam and “Dirty Cotton” for the Environmental Justice Foundation in the UK.
His work has won awards in Cannes‚ London‚ Tokyo and Dubai.
In 2015 Harding won the same competition with the film Moonwalk.
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