Report

Climate, Land, Energy and Water Strategies in the City of Cape Town

The climate change, land-use, energy and water strategies (CLEWS) framework was adopted in this study to look at the energy implications of expanding the City of Cape Town’s current water supply to meet future water demand, using a range of demand scenarios and supply augmentation options. Additionally, the study looks at the potential impact on water demand of relocating agricultural production from land within the city boundary to land outside of it in order to accommodate housing. The focus of this scoping study, is the horticultural area of Phillipi, which lies within the city boundary and which has been identified as a possible low-cost housing development area. This report is presented in four parts. After the introductory section, Section 2 provides an overview of the City of Cape Town. Section 3 provides an overview of water and energy services within the municipality. Section 4 looks at the reliability and energy intensity of supplying water and water services in the CCT under different demand scenarios and with a range of technically feasible supply augmentation options. These demand scenarios include demand-side measures and potential climate change impacts; supply augmentation includes expansion of ground water use, introducing desalination plants and water recycling. Section 5 presents the Philippi Horticultural Area scoping study. An appendix briefly outlines four additional studies from the Energy Research Centre exploring elements of the CLEW nexus that have begun since the inception of this study.