Water Wheel March 2021: Groundwater

Abstract

Assessing groundwater reclamation benefits of clearing invasive alien trees — insights from the Atlantis aquifer The link between water security and catchment health in waterstressed parts of South Africa has been in the spotlight in recent years, including in the greater Cape Town region. This has particularly been the case since a recent multi-year drought (2016-2018) which almost resulted in a ‘Day Zero’ situation in Cape Town – the day that dams would essentially run dry. Luckily, Cape Town survived this historic three-year drought that threatened to shut down the city’s water supply at the height of the crisis. The drought highlighted the water security situation in the region, and the need to protect water source areas from land cover changes that would decrease usable runoff. Since then, various options to improve water security, including dealing with alien plant infestations, have been explored. “There is a real and urgent need to deal with water losses due to invasive alien trees in our catchments in a consistent and longterm manner,” says hydrogeologist Richard Bugan.

Categories