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The Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS) is a complex water supply system in the Western Cape region of South Africa, comprising an inter-linked system of six main dams, pipelines, tunnels and distribution networks, and a number of minor dams, some owned and operated by the Department of Water and Sanitation and some by the City of Cape Town. [1]
The largest component of the WCWSS is the Riviersonderend-Berg River Government Water Scheme, which is a large inter-basin water transfer scheme that regulates the flow of the Sonderend River flowing South towards the Indian Ocean, the Berg River flowing North towards the Atlantic Ocean and Eerste River that flows into False Bay.
The principal dams are all located in the Cape Fold Mountains to the east of Cape Town. They are:
These six major dams provide 99.6% of the combined storage capacity, and 8 minor dams the remaining 0.4%. The levels of these dams are recorded and published in weekly reports by the Department of Water and Sanitation. [2] [3] [4]
The largest dam in the system is the Theewaterskloof Dam on the Sonderend River, with a storage capacity of 480 million cubic meters, or 41% of the total storage. It is linked to the Cape Town water system through the Faure treatment works via the Kleinplass balancing dam with a tunnel system through the Hottentots Holland Mountains. The Berg River dam (130 million cubic meter) was added to this system in 2009.
Other storage dams of the WCWSS are the Voëlvlei Dam (159 million cubic meters), the Wemmershoek Dam (59 million cubic meter) in the Berg River basin, the Upper and Lower Steenbras Dams on the Steenbras River as well as the Palmiet Pumped Storage Scheme dams on the Palmiet River, from which water can be transferred to the Steenbras dams. [5]
In 2009 storage capacity in the system was increased by 17% from 768 to 898 million cubic metres through the completion of the Berg River Dam. [6]
| Major Dams | Capacity (thousand cubic metres) | Location | Minor Dams | Capacity (thousand cubic metres) | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Theewaterskloof (Villiersdorp) | 480188 |  | G | Kleinplaats (Simon's Town) | 1368 |  |
| B | Voëlvlei (Gouda) | 164095 |  | H | Woodhead (Table Mountain) | 954 |  |
| C | Berg River (Franschhoek) | 130010 |  | I | Hely-Hutchinson (Table Mountain) | 925 | |
| D | Wemmershoek (Franschhoek) | 58644 |  | J | Land-en-Zeezicht (Helderberg) | 451 |  |
| E | Steenbras Lower (Grabouw) | 33 517 |  | K | De Villiers (Table Mountain) | 243 |  |
| F | Steenbras Upper (Grabouw) | 31767 | L | Lewis Gay (Simon's Town) | 182 |  | |
| M | Victoria (Table Mountain) | 128 |  | ||||
| N | Alexandra (Table Mountain) | 126 |
In 2009, 63% of the water in the system was being used for domestic and industrial purposes in the city of Cape Town, which has a population of over 4 million. Smaller towns used 5%, and 32% was used by agriculture. [5] Within the city, in 2016/2017, 64.5% of water went to houses, flats and complexes, while 3.6% went to informal settlements. [7]
The system provides water to irrigate about 15,000ha of farmland, where high-value fruit and vegetables are grown. From the early 1970s until the mid-2000s water consumption in Cape Town increased by about 300%, increasing the competition for water with irrigated agriculture. This has been exacerbated by several unusually dry years, such as in 1994-1995 when storage in the system was only one third of average storage. Farmers have adapted by significantly improving irrigation efficiency and shifting even more land into the production of high-value crops. [8]
The system also generates pumped storage hydropower using an installed capacity of 400 Megawatt (MW) on the Palmiet River and 180MW on the Steenbras River.[ citation needed ]
The Cape Town water crisis in South Africa was a period of severe water shortage in the Western Cape region, most notably affecting the City of Cape Town. While dam water levels had been decreasing since 2015, the Cape Town water crisis peaked during mid-2017 to mid-2018 when water levels hovered between 14 and 29 percent of total dam capacity.
In late 2017, there were first mentions of plans for "Day Zero", a shorthand reference for the day when the water level of the major dams supplying the City could fall below 13.5 percent. [9] [10] [11] "Day Zero" would mark the start of Level 7 water restrictions, when municipal water supplies would be largely switched off and it was envisioned that residents could have to queue for their daily ration of water. If this had occurred, it would have made the City of Cape Town the first major city in the world to run out of water. [12] [13] The water crisis occurred at the same time as the Eastern Cape drought, located in a separate region nearby.
The City of Cape Town implemented significant water restrictions in a bid to curb water usage, and succeeded in reducing its daily water usage by more than half to around 500 million litres (130,000,000 US gal) per day in March 2018. [14] The fall in water usage led the City to postpone its estimate for "Day Zero", and strong rains starting in June 2018 led to dam levels recovering. [15] In September 2018, with dam levels close to 70 percent, the city began easing water restrictions, indicating that the worst of the water crisis was over. [16] Good rains in 2020 effectively broke the drought and resulting water shortage when dam levels reached 95 percent. [17]
The Berg River is a river located just north of Cape Town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is approximately 294 km (183 mi) long with a catchment area of 7,715 km2 (2979 mi2) and debouches into the Atlantic Ocean. About 65% of the Berg River area is under agriculture. The major towns in the Berg River area are Velddrif and Laaiplek near the coast, Piketberg, Hopefield, Moorreesburg and Darling further inland.
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The Steenbras Dam, now referred to as Steenbras Lower Dam, is a gravity concrete arch type dam located in the Hottentots-Holland mountains, above Gordons Bay, near Cape Town in South Africa. It is one of the six large dams that make up the Western Cape Water Supply System. It is owned by the City of Cape Town and serves principally to supply water to that city. The dam wall is 28 metres (92 ft) high and 412 metres (1,352 ft) long; it impounds a reservoir of 36,133 megalitres over a surface area of 380 hectares when full.
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The Berg River Dam is a 68-metre (223 ft) high dam on the Berg River in South Africa. It is the centerpiece of the Berg Water Project (BWP) which is designed to capture the winter rainfall and store it for supply to Cape Town during the dry summer months. The project in turn forms an important part of the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS), an intricate system of dams and bulk water infrastructure that provides water to more than 3 million people. At the inauguration of the dam in 2009, then President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe called the project "a good example of how public infrastructure projects can be used to contribute meaningfully to poverty eradication and to foster social empowerment of the people." The Berg River Dam was the first dam in South Africa to be designed and constructed, and is due to be operated, in accordance with the guidelines of the World Commission on Dams. It has been completed on time and within budget. The Berg River basin and the adjacent metropolitan area of Cape Town are of particular importance to the Western Cape region because, although the basin generates only about 3% of the country's water resources, it is home to about 8% of South Africa's population, and produces about 12% of GDP.
Theewaterskloof Dam is an earth-fill type dam located on the Sonderend River near Villiersdorp, Western Cape, South Africa. Administratively it is located within Theewaterskloof Local Municipality. It was established in 1978 and is the largest dam in the Western Cape Water Supply System with a capacity of 480 million cubic metres, about 41% of the water storage capacity available to Cape Town, which has a population of over 4 million people. The dam mainly serves for municipal and industrial use as well as for irrigation purposes. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).
Voëlvlei Dam is a dam located in the Western Cape, South Africa near the town of Gouda. The earth-fill wall is 2,910 metres (9,550 ft) long and 10 metres (33 ft) high. The reservoir covers an area of 1,524 hectares and has a capacity of 168,000 megalitres, making it the second-largest reservoir in the Western Cape Water Supply System. Water from the reservoir is supplied to water treatment works of the City of Cape Town and the West Coast District Municipality, and can also be released into the Berg River for agricultural purposes or to fill the Misverstand Dam.
Wemmershoek Dam is a rock-fill type dam located on the Wemmershoek River near Franschhoek and Paarl in South Africa. It was constructed between 1953 and 1957 on behalf of the City of Cape Town. With a reservoir capacity of 58,644 megalitres, it provides approximately 6.5% of the storage capacity of the Western Cape Water Supply System which supplies Cape Town and surrounding areas.
Steenbras Upper Dam is an earth-fill type dam located in the Hottentots Holland Mountains above Gordons Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa. It impounds the Steenbras River upstream of the older Steenbras Dam. The dam was constructed in 1977 for the City of Cape Town and serves mainly for municipal and industrial use. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).
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