Water Supply: Reshaper of Cape Town's Local Government a Century Ago

Abstract

Cape Town depended for the first 250 years of its existence on water sources from Table Mountain. However, even prior to the South African War of 1899-1902, it was recognised that Table Mountain could no longer supply enough water, and that the mountains across the Cape Flats had to be tapped. The paper describes the moves, a century ago, by the then eleven municipalities in the Cape Peninsula, of which the Municipality of Cape Town was only one, towards unification. In 1913, all the municipalities (with the exception of Wynberg) of the then metropolitan area unified, and additional areas were also incorporated. (In due course the water supply position in Wynberg Municipality, sufficient in 1913, changed to one of impending shortage, and Wynberg joined this union.) Thus the unified City Council of Cape Town inherited the water problems of each municipality, and was forced to take action. Construction work on Steenbras Dam began in 1918; none too soon, because, before the dam was completed, water rationing had to be imposed. The need for adequate water was the single most compelling reason for the institutional reshaping of Cape Town’s local government - this is the main finding of the paper.