The City of Cape Town wants to build two three-million-litre storage tanks in Hanover Park as part of its plan to extract groundwater in the area.
The project involves drawing water from the Cape Flats aquifer and could provide Hanover Park, Bishop Lavis, Philippi, Strandfontein and Swartklip with 83 million litres of water a day.
At sub-council 11’s meeting on Wednesday September 19 at the Athlone Stadium, bulk- water engineer at the City of Cape Town, Marcel Woodman, said nine boreholes had been drilled and five others had been explored in Hanover Park.
The water would be fed back into the bulk-water system, then flow through residents’ taps.
In Hanover Park, three million litres of water would be abstracted in February next year and, in the long term, eight million litres of water would be yielded a day.
Mr Woodman said the borehole piping would be protected by a cage to prevent theft and vandalism.
Hanover Park ward councillor Antonio van der Rheede said the City of Cape Town had not yet confirmed where the water tanks would be placed.
He said the project was a brilliant idea as Cape Town was experiencing the worst drought in over a century.
Mr Van der Rheede said the project presented employment opportunities for Hanover Park residents. He said landscaping in the form of trees would be needed to prevent residents from looking on to the tanks.
“We need to also build a wall around it to prevent vandalism and need a proper security system due to gangsterism. The project also needs to be explained to residents so that they can understand what will happen and how it will benefit them,” he said.
He said the tanks could also be used for youth development in the form of internships or school excursions to teach youngsters the value of water conservation.
“This model can be used in other poor communities as well,” he said.
However, chairperson of the Hanover Park residents Forum, Denver Andrews, said that as far as he knew no one had been informed about a project to build the water tanks.
“Nothing has been brought to our attention,” he said.