City of Cape Town New Water Programme Realising the groundwater potential of the TMG Aquifer through a drought response initiative – Steenbras Wellfield Project

摘要

BACKGROUNDGroundwater from the Table Mountain Group (TMG) Aquifer was initially proposed as a potential source of water supply to the Cape Town metropolitan area during the 1990s. The TMG Aquifer is a large, potentially high-yielding regional aquifer underlying most of the Western and Eastern Cape provinces in South Africa, as shown in Figure 1. The (then) Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (now the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation) initiated the first comprehensive water resource planning study for Cape Town and its surrounding metropolitan areas, titled the Western Cape Water Supply System Analysis. The study triggered a process of research, investigation and consultation, of which an outcome was a comprehensive list of potential water-supply schemes. Although some of the potential water schemes have been modified and newly identified water schemes included, from the outset, a TMG Aquifer groundwater scheme was envisaged to be a viable scheme that would, over time, be called into service.