The Western Cape was on Monday declared a disaster area, with local government implementing drastic interventions to relieve the distressing water shortage in the province.

This includes the drilling of boreholes at hospitals, starting in the metro, and followed by schools in high-risk water scarce areas; expediting environmental impact-assessments (EIAs) for testing a mobile desalination plant using existing water inlet flows used for the reactors at the Koeberg nuclear power station site and drilling into the Table Mountain aquifer.

“The disaster declaration will accelerate the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre’s 'Avoiding Day Zero' project, the province’s strategy to ensure that taps do not run dry,” Premier Helen Zille said in a statement.

The province will also appoint groundwater specialists in each district to identify main ground water sources and coordinate the exploration and management of these resources going forward, while local government would assess water restriction severity in respective municipalities.

While local councils remain responsible for making area-specific decisions, the disaster declaration enables the province to issue instructions for any changes to these restrictions that may be necessary in each locality.

The declaration will be formally gazetted this week, and was signed by the Premier during a Cabinet meeting last week. As it stands, the disaster will be classified for a three-month period, which can be extended if the need arises.

In the event of such a classification, the Disaster Management Act empowers the provincial government to protect key frontline service delivery points by reprioritising funding.

The project, led by the Western Cape’s Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC), will focus on three areas including demand management, winter conservation and groundwater management.

Government will further prioritise interventions based on the provincial Drought Risk Register, while PDMC will focus on the most critical aspects of that list.

Funding will be reprioritised provincially and, should further assistance be needed, the province will approach National Treasury and the National Department of Water and Sanitation.

During the current declaration period, a provincial inter-Ministerial committee – chaired by Minister Anton Bredell – will meet regularly to assess immediate threats and recommend interventions.

In the last year, at least R27-million had been reprioritised for interventions in areas which were declared local disasters. In January, parts of the West Coast and Central Karoo were declared agricultural drought disaster areas.

Hydrological disasters were declared in Prince Albert, Witzenberg and Oudtshoorn, but through interventions, these localities are no longer deemed disaster areas.