Water Utility of the Future: Water and Sanitation Directorate, City of Cape Town
Water Utility of the Future: Water and Sanitation Directorate, City of Cape Town
Post-Day Zero supply diversification is shifting Cape Town from rainfall-dependent surface water toward a diversified, cost-reflective and reliability-priced portfolio.
This report examines how Cape Town is converting drought recovery into a long-term operating model for diversified supply, institutional delivery, infrastructure renewal, demand discipline, and cost-reflective financial planning.
Target Audience
- Utility Executives & System Operators: Understand how the Committed New Water Programme reshapes Cape Town’s operating architecture.
- Regulators & Policymakers: Examine how the Section 78 process defines governance risk for the Faure New Water Scheme.
- Infrastructure Investors & Financiers: Assess how approximately R5.4 billion in committed investment reframes long-term water security.
Report Deliverables
- System Architecture: Provides analysis of Cape Town’s transition from surface-water dependence to diversified portfolio operation.
- Governance Insight: Delivers insight into Section 78 delivery options and institutional decision risk.
- Investment Evaluation: Enables evaluation of capital planning, tariff exposure, and rising marginal water costs.
- Climate Resilience: Provides assessment of infrastructure renewal priorities under non-stationary climate conditions.
- Operational Frameworks: Delivers frameworks for demand management, loss recovery, reuse, and system resilience.
The Five Strategic Pillars
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Architectures: Diversified Supply Portfolio
The Council-approved Cape Town Water Strategy committed a nominal 300 Ml/day of new diversified supply across desalination, reuse, groundwater, and surface augmentation, moving the system beyond single-source rainfall dependence.
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Enablement: Capital and Financial Architecture
The FY2024/25 directorate budget of R18 billion combines capital delivery, operating resilience, wastewater renewal, and major water resilience projects inside the municipal financing base.
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Resolution: Non-Stationary Climate Infrastructure
Infrastructure strategy is shaped by continued surface-water dependence, ageing treatment capacity, renewal backlogs, and the need to add 94–185 Ml/day of bulk capacity every five years to 2050.
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Alignment: Demand, Tariffs, and Customer Equity
Durable post-drought demand of about 160 litres per capita per day supports system resilience, while cost-reflective tariffs must be balanced with free basic access for informal settlements.
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Capability Building: Reuse and Resource Decoupling
The Faure New Water Scheme links wastewater compliance, advanced treatment, and long-term supply diversification, requiring new technical, contractual, and operational capabilities.
Operational Excellence & Resilience
Water and Sanitation Directorate, City of Cape Town operates an integrated water network supported by near-universal piped access and a highly metered customer base. Performance is achieved through demand management, bulk-water planning, reuse development, and renewal of critical treatment and conveyance assets. This is further supported by generator and uninterruptible power supply investment for load-shedding resilience. Key performance is reflected in 97% of households receiving services through a metered connection. This is reinforced by 35.3% non-revenue water, which defines a major recoverable operational opportunity.
Approximately R5.4 billion was committed under the 2019 Water Strategy to add more than 300 Ml/day of new supply over ten years, with further investment required to lift system reliability to a 99.5% standard.
About the Author
Expert Briefing: FAQs
Cape Town is moving from rainfall-dependent surface water toward a diversified portfolio of reuse, groundwater, desalination, and surface augmentation. This is supported by a nominal 300 Ml/day of new diversified supply targeted by the Committed New Water Programme. This is delivered through the Cape Town Water Strategy and the Faure New Water Scheme procurement pathway.
The Section 78 process determines the delivery model for the Faure New Water Scheme. This is supported by advanced water treatment contracts under consideration at a magnitude of R1–an unverified financial value a year for 20 years. This is delivered through the Section 78 feasibility process for internal, public-private partnership, or external-operator options.
The main operational opportunity is converting measurement coverage into lower non-revenue water. This is supported by 35.3% non-revenue water against a stated target below 15%. This is delivered through metering, leakage analytics, pressure management, and active loss-control capability.
Rising marginal cost makes demand management, reuse, and loss recovery central to financial resilience. This is supported by current bulk water cost of R7.38/m3 rising toward about R18/m3 for New Water Programme supply by 2031. This is delivered through cost-reflective tariff reform under the Cape Town Water Strategy.
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