The City of Cape Town is intensifying efforts to reduce water losses, allocating R500 million this financial year to replace 50 kilometres of ageing water pipes. In the past six months alone, nearly 22,000 leaks have been repaired as part of a broader strategy to safeguard supply.
With dam levels currently at 57% and declining, the metro is also accelerating plans to diversify water sources beyond surface water systems.
Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, said the City’s approach combines routine maintenance with long-term infrastructure upgrades.
“The city does two types of maintenance work essentially on a weekly basis,” he said. “We communicate about proactive maintenance in terms of valve installations, meter installations, and new connections that are made. But I think the most exciting project that we’ve got underway, certainly a game-changer for any municipality, is our water pipe replacement programme.”
Badroodien explained that the City has identified areas most prone to pipe bursts due to ageing materials, infrastructure conditions, and geographic factors. Teams then replace these pipes, extending their lifespan by between 50 and 100 years. “By so doing [we are] extending the lifeline of that pipeline, which ultimately safeguards the water supply to that area and then ultimately reduces the inconvenience to those communities,” he said.
The City runs a similar replacement programme for sewer pipes.
Highlighting the scale of the task, Badroodien said if the entire water network were laid end to end, it would stretch from Cape Town to Cambodia. International best practice, supported by the International Water Association and the World Bank, recommends replacing two percent of water infrastructure annually.
“At the moment, we essentially have moved our replacement programme from about 0.1 percent at the start of my term to one percent where we are currently, and moving that then, hopefully, in the next term to about two percent replacement,” he said.
While the City undertakes some replacements directly, it also relies on private contractors, with advance notice given to the construction sector to prepare for expanded tender opportunities.
Listen to the full interview below:
VOC News
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