CAPE township — In the thick of a historic drought , Cape Town is calculate for solutions both immediate and long - term to its piddle supply problems . Although the potentialshut - offof Cape Town ’s taps on ‘ Day Zero ’ is potential to benarrowly debar this yearthanks to intensive water supply - saving efforts , long - condition drought , coupled with increased water supply requirement and prospect of ahotter and drier future due to climate change , have added urgency to the push to wreak extra piss generator online .
Currently , Cape Town receives98 percentof its potable municipal water system from a orotund and advanced organisation of mountain - fed dekametre extending into the regional hinterland . While dam - building projects have met the city ’s needs for a hundred , Cape Town is now turning to the area ’s meaning underground aquifers . But as local municipality are moving ahead with boring , ecologists and environmentalists are interested that the city ’s current plans put both the unequaled biodiversity of the part and the aquifer ’s retentive - term sustainability at risk .
Water and biodiversity
Cape Town and the surrounding region sit around atop a complex geology that include the Table Mountain Group ( TMG ) Formation , whose corrosion has create the iconic Table Mountain that command the metropolis ’s skyline . The sandstone that predominantly make up the TMG have fractured over eons to make theTMG Aquifer , which is reload by mountain rain . Below much of Cape Town itself , a sandy airfoil layer and shale constitution defend ashallower aquifernamed after Cape Town ’s low - lying area , the Cape Flats .
These aquifers , which together carrybillions ofgallonsof water below primer , present a tantalizing chance for Cape Town and nearby municipalities to meet their growing urine needs . Groundwater is relatively cheap to press out , and well-heeled to salt away . Over the past few months , while Cape Town ’s drouth developed into a global word news report , Mayor Patricia de Lille hashighlightedthe urban center ’s progress drilling exploratory boreholes atstrategic pointsthroughout the region . City documents reflect a design to take out a combined120 megalitres ( 32 million gallons ) of raw body of water a dayfrom the Table Mountain and Cape Flats Aquifers over the next few age .
But in addition to hold spate of water , the special geology and Mediterranean climate of the Western Cape region has also caused this field to be one of the earth ’s most biodiverse places , with manyplant coinage that exist nowhere else on the planet . In 2004 , in edict to protect this unparalleled diversity , some of the remaining raw field within the Western Cape weredesignated a Unesco World Heritage website .
Now , scientist and conservationist are sounding the alarm about the likely impacts of tap the aquifers . The origin architectural plan , they reason , threaten both the biodiversity of the region and the long - term viability of sourcing water system from the aquifer .
Potential impacts
A majority of thereported222 drilling sites that the metropolis has identified are locate within officially - protected region in the ring peck . parking brake water permits issued by the national politics allow local municipalities to bypass standard environmental followup procedure in set up drilling sites . Cape Town and its declarer have been at pains to emphasize that they are not cutting environmental turning point .
Others disaccord that the city has been going about extraction responsibly , particularly in ecologically - raw areas . Mark Botha , a Cape Town - based independent water and biodiversity consultant , told Earther the oil production architectural plan was “ just gonzo . ”
Botha described the apparent strategy of placing some water boreholes within subsist river and streams , so that draw out water can pour out directly into riverbeds and down to dam up below . While apt in that it reduces the penury for extra water infrastructure , Botha called the plan “ gobsmackingly stupefied ” from an environmental perspective . The scheme would ensue in potentially monolithic increment in flow volumes , altering the bionomical type of these piddle channel in unknown way .
Jasper Slingsby , another local ecologist , haswrittenthat the metropolis ’s boring will neither come in online in time to address the straightaway crisis , nor will it help with long - term demands since some of the region being drilled are the same areas that feed the part ’s dike . Also of concern is over - extraction leading to depleted aquifers , as lieu such asAustraliaand theU.S. , where groundwater enjoyment is extended , have watch .
Meanwhile , drilling in Western Cape ’s ecologically - sensitive areas carries unknown issue for the area ’s unique environmental science . In February , UK environmentalist Robbie Blackhall Miles typed out an exasperatedtweetregarding one likely biodiversity menace :
Morning spent look at#SouthAfricaborehole maps & my core dropped like a stone when I realise that there is borehole drilling / ditches through the habitat of#CriticallyEndangeredDiastella buekii.#Proteaceae#WaterCrisispics by@JasperSlingsbyhttps://t.co / pPQd24vZb4pic.twitter.com / hvyhZbUKCF
— Robbie Blackhall - Miles ( @fossilplants)February 21 , 2018
About an 60 minutes later , Slingsby retweeted the post , contribute :
Last known population of Erica bakeri too ( https://t.co/K633noHgGj ) . estimable bye … How many unthinking flushes were you worth?https://t.co / Abj2RXqHDS
— Jasper ( @JasperSlingsby)February 21 , 2018
In reaction to the cry , Cape Town hasrecently pledgedto step back from its premature drilling plan . It now claims it ’s reducing the number and position of drilling sites , and has agreed to found an international environmental monitoring committee that include some member who ’ve objected to the action at law .
Managed aquifer recharge
Cape Town is also predict to replace the piss it press out from aquifers throughmanaged aquifer recharge(MAR ) , a well - established method for reload aquifers for water storage and later reprocess . In some forms MAR has score points with environmentalist because it provides a means for reuse of stormwater and treated effluent .
Nebo Jovanovic , a government - affiliated scientist who has conductedextensive researchon aquifer systems in the area , is confident that oversee aquifer recharge could be implemented in the Cape Flats Aquifer area . Unlike the urban center ’s plan to drill the TMG Aquifer water in mint catchment areas , such a system would be feed in primarily by pee downstream of masses , catching and recycling this water for reuse
The urban center has the know - how to do this because it already runs the second largest oversee aquifer recharge scheme in southerly Africa , in its northerly suburb ofAtlantis .
Managed aquifer recharge brings its own environmental and health concerns . Illegal discharges into stormwater , or a malfunction wastewater treatment plant life , could display the aquifer to defilement . lactate up too much weewee from the water mesa at once also means that salty ocean waters could take off infiltrate the aquifer . to avoid these risks , Jovanovic insists that a robust water monitoring system is necessary for a city - spacious roll - out .
Now that the ‘ Day Zero ’ drouth crisis has been ward off for the moment , there is sentence to consider the best way to make indisputable water supply and conservation employment together — and work well — proceed ahead .
Cape Town ’s current efforts to tackle its water supply crisis could position it to serve as a model forwater stressed citiesglobally in an old age of rapid development and mood variety , where water will be more and more hard to access . The metropolis ’s homegrown templet for handle aquifer recharge could inform context - specific efforts in other parts of the earthly concern to recycle water system , and reduce the load on local ecologies . Cape Town ’s probability to head is there for the pickings — the man is catch .
Christian Alexander is a Cape Town - based sustainability and urban provision medical specialist and U.S.-licensed lawyer .
Climate changeDrinking watersouth africaWater
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