De Lille puts water tax in mix to fund projects

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has confirmed that her municipality is considering a surcharge for water because the city needs funds to boost its dwindling supply.

De Lille told reporters on Thursday the city had funded its water augmentation scheme with R2.6-billion from its own coffers.

"I will be honest with you, we have been considering a water levy among the other funding mechanisms to fund our augmentation schemes," said De Lille.

She said the city was looking at funding options from the French Development Bank, German Development Bank and local banks.

"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 water uses, we will [ensure] public participation," she added.

Day Zero is when the city has to cut water supply to residents entirely.

De Lille said her municipality would do that when dam storage levels reached 13.5%.

She had been addressing the media about the city's new water dashboard, which will help residents track and monitor their water usage, the city's dam storage levels and the progress of the augmentation projects.

The city plans to introduce its first seven projects - which will add a total of 196-million litres per day for residents - in February.

The projects comprise six desalination plants and one recycling plant in Zandvliet.

De Lille said the city would only raise its water tariffs next year.

According to the dashboard, the city's augmentation projects are 48% complete, while dam storage levels are at 36.2%.

It also shows that only 44% of Capetonians are complying with the restriction of 87l per person per day.

"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 [May6] is due to consumption increasing to 602-million litres of water per day this past week," said De Lille.

She urged residents to save more water in order to push Day Zero back.