Cape Town’s ageing pipes are bleeding R460 million a year as dam levels hit a seven-year low

In Cape Town’s 2018 water crisis, residents could only collect one 25l container from Newlands Spring at a time. Picture: Getty Images Cape Town’s water system is under growing pressure, and the city’s own infrastructure is partly to blame. During its briefing on Wednesday, the municipality revealed it spends R460.8 million annually on repairs and maintenance of its water network, a sprawling 11 253km web of pipes, pump stations and reservoirs that loses millions of litres daily to leaks and bursts.

This comes as dam levels have fallen to around 55%, their lowest in roughly seven years. The city has declared an “Early Drought Caution”, the first formal warning phase in its Drought Management Framework. “Cape Town is not facing an immediate drought emergency, but dam levels are about 20% lower than last year, and the system is entering a phase where early choices will shape the months ahead,” said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.

He warned that the next 90 days were critical. “We still have a window to change the outcome of this winter, but that window is closing.” The city’s main water supply comes from the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS), a network of interconnected dams including Theewaterskloof, which alone accounts for roughly 30% of storage, and Wemmershoek, which contributes about 14%. Both catchment areas received below-average rainfall during the 2024-25 hydrological year, with rainfall described as “spatially variable” and critically low in the areas that matter most for water security.

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Compounding this, the rainfall season ended earlier than usual, triggering a faster-than-expected drawdown of dam storage from as early as November 2025. Daily water use spiked to 1 073 million litres on a single Monday this February, well above the city’s target of 975 million litres per day.

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