6. EXISTING STRATEGIES AND PLANS 6.1 INTRODUCTION Water is a limiting factor in development in the Western Cape and, as water requirements in the province grow, it is becoming increasingly important to manage and plan for water resources. A considerable amount of work has been done by National, Provincial and Local Government over the past decade to develop strategies to manage water resources in the Province, and these are reviewed in this section. A brief introduction to the existing strategies is given in this section, and then each one is reviewed. A summary is provided, and then the gaps identified during the process are highlighted and commented on. Recommendations on how these may be addressed will form part of Phase II of this study. 6.2 STRATEGIES INITIATED BY DEPARTMENT OF WATER AFFAIRS 6.2.1 Brief History The development of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) strategies for the Western Cape Province forms part of an overall process that has been unfolding for over a decade under the direction of the Department of Water Affairs (DWA). A brief history of this process is described below in order to provide a context to the review of exWATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 6.3 INTRODUCTION This Section provides an overview of water resource availability and requirements within the Western Cape Province. It focuses on two levels of information, firstly a regional overview at Water Management Area level, based on existing information (of which the 2005 DWA Internal Strategic Perspectives) form the basis, supported by more recent subsequent information that may have since become available. Secondly, it presents the preliminary information currently available from the All Towns Reconciliation Strategy, being undertaken by DWA, so as to prioritize those towns in which the most urgent attention is required to address water availability related issues. The management of water resources (including water availability and utilization), is undertaken on the basis of water management areas. As shown on Figure 6.3.1, the majority of the province falls within four WMAs, namely: Berg WMA (No 19); Breede WMA (No 18); Gouritz WMA (No.16); and Olifants-Doorn (No.17) WMA (approximately 50% thereof). In addition there are small areas that overlap into two adjacent WMA‟s namely the Fish to Tsitsikamma WMA (No 15) and the Lower Orange WMA (No.14) Status Quo Report © DEADP 155 Figure 6.3.1 The Western Cape and its WMAs. Surface water catchments are defined by topographical features and as such, the catchment areas do not coincide with municipal and provincial boundaries, which are determined based on other factors. Within the scope of this study, it is therefore neither possible nor of added value to try and disseminate available regional surface water resource information to match provincial boundaries. Rather, an overview at WMA level provides an indication of the current status. 6.4 WARMS DATABASE – REGISTERED USERS At the time of submission of this draft Status Quo Report, the WARMS information for the Western Cape Province had yet to be made available for the study. To provide provisional indication of the largest water users per District Municipality, the Study Team has accessed information from the Water Masterplans undertaken by each municipality and consolidated that into a summary as provided in Figure 6.4.1 to Figure 6.4.5. Figure 6.4.1 Largest 10 water users in the Cape Winelands District Municipality. The indicated water use by the Haasdag Dagsentrum appears to be incorrect and should be verified once the WARMS data set is available. Status Quo Report © DEADP 156 Figure 6.4.2 Largest 10 water users in the Central Karoo District Municipality. Figure 6.4.3 Largest 10 water users in the Eden District Municipality. Figure 6.4.4 Largest 10 water users in the Overberg District Municipality. Status Quo Report © DEADP 157 Figure 6.4.5 Largest 10 water users in the West Coast District Municipality. Information from the City of Cape Town has been requested but was not available at the time of submission of this Draft report. In the interim, information from the City‟s Integrated Water Resources Planning Study of 2000 has been reviewed and at that stage, the largest 10 water users were as indicated in Figure 6.4.6. Figure 6.4.6 Largest 10 water users in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality (2000). 6.5 OVERVIEW OF THE ALL TOWNS STRATEGY The DWA Directorate of National Water Resource Planning is currently undertaking a Reconciliation Strategy for the individual towns in both the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces. This focuses on understanding the status quo of water availability and utilization within each town, as well as the projected increase in water requirements. A strategy is then developed for each town towards reconciling the current and projected water demands, through identification of both potential demand- side (water conservation and demand management) and supply-side (water source) interventions. To date the reconciliation strategies for the Western Cape District Municipalities are in final draft form, and have been submitted to DWA for approval (with the exception of the West Coast DM, for which the strategies are yet to be completed). Figure 6.5.1 provides a summary snap-shot of those towns in which current water shortages regularly occur, as well as those towns where peak season (summer) supply is inadequate. The latter, in most cases, is associated with lack of bulk storage or insufficient infrastructure reticulation capacity, to meet the short peak season water requirements, typically occurring during the summer holiday periods. Status Quo Report © DEADP 158 Figure 6.5.1 Towns exhibiting current water supply concerns. Ref: Draft District Municipality Strategies (Umvoto), March 2011. 6.6 GROUNDWATER This Section provides an overview of groundwater resource availability and requirements within the Western Cape Province. The geological setting is a key driver of geohydrological patterns. A brief discussion is held of the geology of each WMA. Structural geology is also important as this controls, often to a significant degree, groundwater behaviour. Based on the geological setting the aquifer types have been determined by DWA and these are also presented and discussed briefly. The aquifer types have been sub-divided into: Fractured aquifers (fractured and fissured bedrock resulting from decompression and /or tectonic action. Groundwater occurs predominantly within fractures and fissures in sedimentary and metamorphic rocks) Intergranular aquifers (generally unconsolidated but occasionally semi-consolidated. Groundwater within intergranular interstices in porous medium. Tertiary – Quaternary coastal deposits and alluvial deposits along river terraces). Status Quo Report © DEADP 159 Fractured and Intergranular aquifers (largely medium to coarse grained granite, weathered to varying thickness The typical borehole yields that can be anticipated from these aquifer types are also indicated and have been classified according to the following 5 yield categories: > 0.5 ℓ/s 2.0 – 5.0 ℓ/s 0.5 – 2.0 ℓ/s 0.1 – 0.5 ℓ/s < 0.1 ℓ/s The approach for this Status Quo report is essentially to complete a basic groundwater balance per Quaternary catchment. The amount of groundwater recharging a Quaternary catchment is used as the total groundwater input and the amount of groundwater abstracted as the outflow. These two values are used to calculate a groundwater stress index (i.e. abstraction / recharge). The concept of a Stress Index is used to assess the sustainability of current groundwater use and the stress status of the groundwater resource. The Stress Index is the abstraction expressed as a percentage of the recharge. The concept of stressed water resources is addressed by the National Water Act, but is not defined. Part 8 of the Act gives some guidance by providing the following qualitative examples of „water stress‟ (Parsons and Wentzel, 2006). Where demands for water are approaching or exceed the available supply; Where water quality problems are imminent or already exist; or Where water resource quality is under threat. Once a stress index value has been calculated, it is assigned a stress level based on Table 6.6.1. The lowest permissible category is D, since it is the lowest limit of sustainability. If the Stress Index is a category E or F, the assumption is that there is no more groundwater remaining for further allocation. No further groundwater abstraction may be granted. Table 6.6.1 Guide for determining the level of stress of a groundwater unit (GRDM Manual) PRESENT STATUS DESCRIPTION STRESS INDEX STRESS INDEX CATEGORY (percentage) (ratio) (abstraction / recharge) (abstraction / recharge) A < 5 < 0.05 Unstressed or slightly stressed B 5 - 20 0.05–0.20 C 20 - 40 0.20–0.40 Moderately stressed D 40 - 65 0.40–0.65 E Highly stressed 65 - 95 0.65–0.95 F Critically stressed > 95 > 0.95 The other very important component of the groundwater use is the amount of groundwater that needs to be set aside for the Groundwater Reserve. Under the National Water Act (Act No. 36 of 1998), „the Reserve‟ means the quantity and quality of water required: To satisfy basic human needs by securing a basic water supply, as prescribed under the Water Services Act (Act 108 of 1997) for people to be supplied with water from that resource, and Status Quo Report © DEADP 160 To protect aquatic ecosystems in order to secure ecologically sustainable development and use of water resources. The Reserve is calculated per quaternary catchment by calculating the volume of groundwater required to satisfy the basic human needs of the catchments population (25 ℓ/person/day) and the volume of baseflow for each month (plus any other ecosystem requirements dependent on groundwater (e.g. springs, groundwater dependent ecosystems etc)). Typically the groundwater allocation for basic human needs (25 ℓ/person/day) comprises a small percentage of the overall resource.