The City of Cape Town has been drilling for aquifers in the vicinity of the Steenbras Dam as a solution to the water crisis but ecologists are concerned that continued drilling may cause problems of its own.
The Steenbras Dam is located in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, which is in a region that is recognised as one of the world’s 18 biodiversity hot spots.
Permission for the drilling to begin was granted by the national Department of Water and Sanitation, as well as the Department of Environmental Affairs but ecologists have warned that drilling into aquifers could harm the region’s rich biodiversity. Some of the rarest species of indigenous flora can be found there and could very easily face extinction within a matter of months as a result.
The City does plan to start sourcing water through other more sustainable means later this year, such as through the use of desalinization plants and wastewater recycling, but in the meantime, an ecologist at the University of Cape Town, Adam West says, “You can literally wipe out a species by developing an area not bigger than a tennis court.” In a letter to local authorities, West and four colleagues argued that the drilling would ruin the heritage site and lowering the water table would harm dozens of wetland species, but there has been no response from the City as yet according to West. In the statement the scientists warned that the City will "compromise critical ecological infrastructure upon which the health of the region and its people rely and potentially contravene several international commitments to which South Africa is a signatory". The letter goes further to state that: "The drill sites also intersect with 5 652 known populations of species of conservation concern, representing 266 separate species… These are staggeringly high numbers for any development."
Steenbras is not the only area to be impacted. There is also a plan for water extraction from the Table Mountain Aquifer as well, which the City estimates can yield 25 to 60 million litres a day. While West does acknowledge the need to develop alternative water sources he insists that guidelines should be followed.
The Mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services councillor Xanthea Limberg confirmed that no environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were done prior to the commencement of drilling but said that none were required under the licence conditions.
According to Limberg, "The City has a significant amount of research that's been done over the last 10 years or so, giving us a great understanding of the aquifers and where they exist and what risks there are when these sources are tapped into. And obviously, we believe that we are drilling in a very sensitive way by sticking to the yields that the Department of Water and Sanitation has approved but also complying [with] the environmental authorisations that have been granted from the Department of Environmental Affairs. And obviously, the environmental control officers also have to report accordingly, and everything is documented in respect to the entire drilling exercise. And we believe all of these things combined, as well as the City's focus on replenishing these aquifers, will also ensure that we safeguard these water sources."
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