Cape Town: The Water and Sanitation Directorate of the City of Cape Town has made a significant progress in upgrading the critical infrastructure, since the beginning of the 2024-25 financial year, by replacing 63% of its targeted 50,000 m of water pipes and 64% of its targeted 100,000 m of sewer pipes across the city.
Reportedly, until now 31,626 m of water and 64,136 m of sewer pipes were replaced city-wide since the beginning of the financial year in July 2024. This accelerated the efforts to meet the commitment of the City of Cape Town to improve the service delivery by replacing the ageing water and sanitation infrastructure.
More than R523 million were allocated from the 2024-25 financial year budget, to build resilience in the long-term through investment in the reticulation network.
In Jan 2025, the pipe replacements were done which comprised of 2,162 m of water pipes in Goodwood, Sea Point, Sarepta Kuils River, Ottery, Retreat, Kommetjie, Glencairn and Hout Bay. 6,269 m if sewer pipes were also installed in Constantia, Plumstead, Soneike, Kuils River, Bellville and Uitsig.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Water and Sanitation – Councillor Zahid Badroodien said that by maintaining, rehabilitating and upgrading water and sewer pipelines proactively.
They are also reducing the risk of service disruptions, as it also reduced the sewer blockages and overflows that provided a healthier environment for residents.
City of Cape Town prioritised the pipe replacements which were based on several multiple factors such as conducting comprehensive condition assessments to identify ageing infrastructure and potential capacity with upgrades where required.
This analysed the public notifications raised and depot reports that highlighted where structural failures were occurred.
As per the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, this captured vital data such as pipe sizes, locations, manholes and household connections.
With over 9000 km of sewer pipeline servicing properties across Cape Town, these infrastructure investments are crucial in securing reliable services for the growing population of the City of Cape Town.
Notably, Cape Town has approved a South African record infrastructure budget of R39.5 billion over three years, more than the three Gauteng Metros were combined. The city further calculated that 75% of its infrastructure spent direct benefits of lower-income households, with the pro-poor portion amounting to R9 billion in the 2024-25 Financial Year, more than the entire infrastructure budget of any other city.