#WaterCrisis: Search for water takes to the skies

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Cape Town - As part of the City’s efforts to find additional water, a City contractor, Umvoto Africa, will conduct surveys to confirm prime locations where the highest volume of water can be abstracted from aquifers. The aerial survey, which will take place over a four-week period in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha and Philippi, is expected to help bring 25 million litres of water a day to the city’s supply from June next year. Managing director of Umvoto Africa John Holmes said the survey would help determine the subterranean geology, which will in turn reveal where they could expect to find water. “More importantly, it gives us a total overview of the resource so that we can manage it as one and not one borehole at a time,” he said. Mayor Patricia de Lille’s spokesperson, Zara Nicholson, said: “The City has taken a cautious approach to the abstraction of underground water from aquifers in order to ensure the process is both environmentally and ecologically sensitive.”

She said that even though the survey would be of great help in securing additional water, it shouldn’t be a reason for people to step back from saving water. “You can only save water while you have water. This is an opportunity for us to rethink our water mix, our relationship with water, and to ensure that we all thrive going forward as Team Cape Town,” she said.

Nicholson added: “The method being used for the survey will not pose any danger to residents.”

The City will also be tapping into the Atlantis-Silwerstroom Aquifer and Table Mountain Group Aquifer (TMGA) to supplement surface water supplies.

The yield from the first phase of the TMGA project is anticipated to be approximately 10 million litres a day. The yield from the other areas of the TMG aquifers such as the Helderberg, South Peninsula and Wemmershoek will be approximately 50 to 60 million litres a day.