Danish government invests R11m in groundwater abstraction in Cape Town

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During the most recent drought, citizens reduced water use, reused grey water, and, increasingly, started to tap into groundwater for their needs. This raised new questions about how groundwater is managed for both private and bulk water supply going forward.

Risk to water security

Groundwater is typically a fallback resource in times of drought. Hence unmonitored and unregulated abstraction of groundwater, especially under an uncertain changing climate, poses a risk to water security. During the ‘Day Zero’ drought, there was a substantial yet undocumented increase in the number of boreholes and well points throughout the City of Cape Town.

To better understand what was happening to the city’s groundwater supply, AB InBev funded a pilot project which included a citizen science survey and initiated a groundwater monitoring network in Cape Town. This work has already improved understanding of groundwater use in some residential and industrial areas and has set in motion a growing monitoring network that will help to inform the management of groundwater abstraction in the greater Cape Town area.

Table Mountain Water Source Partnership

The partnership among AB InBev, WWF and the Embassy of Denmark involves an R11m agreement to take this work to scale under the banner of the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership.

“We would like to express our gratitude to AB InBev and the Danish Embassy, both essential partners in funding groundwater activities, for their contribution towards establishing the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership. This partnership will help to safeguard the smallest and most westerly water source area in South Africa and help us to build resilience in the face of climate change which, climate scientists tell us, is likely to bring with it more severe droughts in future,” said Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa.