The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate has signed a tripartite agreement with French partners, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) to help improve the City’s sustainable water supply and strengthen the management of its groundwater schemes and programmes.

AFD will provide funding of €500 000, or R8.3-million at current exchange rates, for technical cooperation and research in a two-year collaborative project with the technical team of the Water and Sanitation Directorate.

It aims to assist the City with reaching its groundwater goals and learn from international best practice.

BRGM will share knowledge and practical training covering three main components, namely groundwater forecasting through the implementation of a modelling tool to anticipate groundwater level decrease according to meteorological scenarios; training and capacity building in using the forecasting modelling tool; and the characterisation and impact evaluation of ‘Contaminants of Emerging Concern’ in stormwater collected for aquifer recharge.

The Future Water Institute of the University of Cape Town will be associated with the BRGM’s team on this water quality component of the project.

“BRGM is happy and proud to launch this project with the City of Cape Town. Our engineers and researchers have been involved in groundwater management in France and worldwide for two decades,” said BRGM International Division deputy head Jean-Philippe Rançon.

‘The City’s groundwater projects are progressing well and are already at different stages of development. Our team is very excited and grateful to be collaborating with AFD and BRGM so they can share their international technical expertise with us to improve and build our capacity to manage and develop groundwater resources in Cape Town,” said the City of Cape Town Water and Sanitation MMC Councillor Zahid Badroodien.

“I am confident this investment will play an integral role in building Cape Town’s resilience against future climate shocks such as droughts so that we can ensure a continued reliable water supply for our residents, businesses and visitors.”

The City is working towards bringing about 105 Ml/day of groundwater online to contribute to supply by 2036 as part of the New Water Programme and the City’s Water Strategy.

“The innovative approach developed by the City of Cape Town will inspire other cities in the world facing similar climate challenges. This project will benefit the population of Cape Town, and the lessons learnt will also benefit many others in the world,” concluded AFD Southern Africa deputy director Audrey Rojkoff.