Unknown Speaker 59
The Cape Town water outlook should concern every member of this council, as water restrictions are likely to become a normal part of life in Cape Town until 2035 — a structural crisis that will hit hardest the residents who already struggle to afford electricity, food, transport, and municipal bills. Eight years after the 2018 drought, the New Water Programme aimed at bringing an additional 300 million litres into the system is falling behind: the Paarden Eiland desalination expansion is delayed over a Transnet agreement, Atlantis desalination has been set back by cable theft, and the Berg River augmentation scheme has been pushed out to 2030 while demand grows at three times the sustainable rate. Climate change means the city cannot build a water strategy around the assumption that the weather is going to behave itself, and as water becomes scarcer and more expensive, the poorest households cannot be expected to absorb the cost.