MJC president Shaykh Irafaan Abrahams and Maulana Abdul Khaliq Allie made dua at today’s interfaith prayer for rain on Table Mountain. The event was organised by the City of Cape Town and representatives from various churches, the Western Cape Christian Ministers’ Association, the Western Cape Traditional Leaders and Cultural Council, the Khoisan Griqua Royal House, the Bahaí Community of South Africa, the Tushita Kadampa Buddhist Centre, and the Hindu and Jewish communities were in attendance.

Mayor Patricia De Lille says it’s a difficult time for Capetonians as we are in the midst of the worst drought in 100 years. She asked religious leaders to guide their congregants in praying for much-needed rains. Over the past two winter seasons, Cape Town has experienced below annual average rainfall.

Over the past two winter seasons, Cape Town has experienced way below annual average rainfall as we feel the harsh impacts of climate change.

“We are a water-scarce region and we know that there is not enough rain predicted for the winter rainy season which we are usually accustomed to at this time of year.  Since the beginning of the year, I have been instructing our Water Management Department to move our medium- to long-term plans forward and expand these plans as we need solutions right now.  We are now moving to Level 4 restrictions and we have set a daily overall collective usage target of 600 million litres,” said De Lille.

“We have yet to meet this target, but the abnormal hot weather at this time of the year has meant that we are also losing water due evaporation.”

De Lille urged residents, businesses and government departments to reduce consumption by drastically changing their behaviour.

“The only way we can make an impact is by breaking out of the business-as-usual mind-set because we are in a crisis.”

The Level 4 water restrictions mean that, among others, all garden watering is prohibited and no topping up swimming pools is allowed.

This week, dam level storage stands at 20,7%. With the last 10% of the water mostly being unusable, dam levels are effectively at 10,7%.

“We are now asking all residents to bring their water consumption down to 100 litres per person, per day. This is possible if we only use water for essential bathing, drinking and cooking.”

Over the past few months, the City has been proactively engaging with residents and businesses. De Lille said she has personally visited some of the high consumption households asking them to drastically reduce their consumption immediately and repair any leaks on their properties.

She has also met with the business sector and personally called some of those businesses identified as high consumers and they have committed to working with the City to conserve water.

“I must thank Capetonians for bringing down their consumption, but we still need to do a lot more,” she said.

In terms of other interventions, the City is stepping up its response to water leaks and complaints by allocating R22 million to employ additional staff. These staff members are able to repair leaks and attend to water management device faults. Approximately 75 additional staff members have been employed to improve our response times to water complaints.

The city is also continuing large-scale pressure reduction programmes across Cape Town to force down consumption.

Other emergency interventions are under way and as dam levels decline, the City will start to implement a lifeline supply which entails reducing the water pressure to a very low level across the metro.

The City is currently expanding emergency water supply schemes which include:
• emergency drilling of boreholes into the Table Mountain Group Aquifer (TMGA), with a yield of approximately 2 million litres per day and expanding that to a yield of 10 million litres per day
• a small-scale desalination package plant with a yield of approximately 2 million litres per day and expanding it to an additional 2 million litres per day
• a small-scale water re-use for drinking use plant, with a yield of 10 million litres per day
• drilling and expanding a well field into the Cape Flats Aquifer, with a combined yield of 5 million litres per day

De Lille has convened a task team to expedite the “municipality’s response to this crisis.

“We are going to need all hands on deck. As I have called on residents and businesses to work with us, I am also calling to religious leaders to help us and pray for rain.

“I communicated to the senior executive management team in the City this week that no expense will be spared to manage the crisis and ensure water supply, so too will no stakeholder be spared and we are committed to working with all sectors and all residents to make sure that we preserve our water supply, but also find new solutions.

“I want to assure Capetonians that we are doing everything we can and it is being done with the greatest measure of urgency.”

“Thank you once again to all the religious leaders for coming out to pray today and I ask that the prayers for rain continue each day and every time you gather your congregants.”