Cape Town: National Water Week is observed from March 20 to 26, 2025 and the City of Cape Town highlighted the proactive clearing of water-thirsty alien invasive plants as one of its interventions to help in building a water secure future for residents.
The Water and Sanitation Directorate of the City of Cape Town has currently cleared nearly 63,000 hectares of alien plant species with the Greater Cape Town Water Fund (GCTWF). They restored the 17.5 billion litres of water per year to the water catchments of the city.
Alien invasive plants consume substantially more water than any other native vegetation. Considering this reason, they are clearing the non-indigenous, water-guzzling plants such as pines, gums and wattles which is a part of the multi-pronged New Water Programme of the City of Cape Town that aims to add an extra 300 million litres of water per day to the supply by 2030.
Reportedly, this is a key component of the Water Strategy of the City of Cape Town and one of the five strategic actions of the NWP, which also includes desalination, groundwater abstraction that managed aquifer recharge and water reuse.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Water and Sanitation – Councillor Zahid Badroodien visited the Steenbras Dam catchment along with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to see the significant progress made in the catchment so far.
According to Badroodien, this is a critical and cost-effective clearing of invasive plant species that establishes more resilient water catchments, that will continue to supply the City of Cape Town with water for years to come. However, iIt also provides significant social, economic and environmental benefits by creating more local jobs and allows indigenous water-wise fynbos to flourish.
It is worrisome to think that if this clearing does not take place, as the water losses of the City of Cape Town would double by 2045.
Councillor Zahid Badroodien further stated that the water security is everyone’s responsibility and working together is essential to achieve the water-secure future. It supports conservation efforts, by adopting sustainable water practices and investing in nature-based solutions that can restore water supplies and build a more resilient future together.
Notably, the City of Cape Town has promised R125 million towards the GCTWF over five years for 2022 to 2026. This has enabled an equal investment that is to be leveraged from private funders, to address the same challenge.