Western Cape implements long-term solutions to prevent water scarcity

Western Cape is implementing long-term solutions to prevent water scarcity.

More than R800 million will be used for water infrastructure over the next two years.

The money will finance upgrades in all Western Cape municipalities, except Cape Town, as the city has independent plans for desalination.

Premier Alan Winde said Garden Route town Knysna is recovering from its water stress following the declaration of a state of disaster.

"Our engineers have been there helping with national, provincial and local governments, making sure that we mitigate this risk because we cannot have a town run out of water, but they're not the only one. We've also got other Garden municipalities and Karoo municipalities that have got a lot of water stress.”

Winde said that as more people migrate to the province, the Western Cape will use its medium-term plan to support water demand over the next 15 years.

"The Western Cape, ourselves, investing more than R2 billion into bulk water infrastructure over the medium-term that is aligned to our water resilience plan and our 15-year plan that has been on the go already. We've got to keep monitoring, keep supporting.”