Water demand of selected residential properties with access to groundwater in serviced areas of the Cape Peninsula

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the water demand of selected residential properties with access to groundwater in serviced areas of the Cape Peninsula. This winter rainfall region is typified by hot and dry summer months, corresponding to peak garden water demand. Water restrictions in the area are relatively common and primarily target outdoor use. Groundwater serves as an alternative source of water to some consumers in the area, but little is known about the extent of such use and the impact thereof on potable water demand.A major part of the area is underlain by a primary, unconfined aquifer that has been reported to have high exploitation potential. Its unconsolidated sand and shallow water table provides ideal conditions for small scale groundwater abstraction. Several owners of properties situated above the aquifer unit have capitalised on this and utilise groundwater as an alternative to potable water, mostly for garden irrigation purposes.The main objective of this research was to investigate the average extent of the expected reduction in average annual municipal water demand due to private groundwater use at the selected properties in the study area. The methodology involved abstracting data from the City of Cape Town's registration process for the private use of non-potable water. The data was recorded between 2000 and 2006 and was available only in hard copy format.The registration data was used to identify residential properties with access to private groundwater sources, based on the physical addresses recorded on the registration forms. The rate of groundwater abstraction was not recorded during the registration process, nor was any of the properties spatially referenced. The data set contained information for 4 487 properties, of which 3 764 could ultimately be used in the analysis. Data from a recent hydro-census in Hermanus (which was done by others prior to this study) was used to test the intended research method first. This trial investigation involved only 114 properties and was used to streamline the proposed methodology for application on the full-scale analysis of the City of Cape Town data.Each address was captured electronically, verified manually and filtered to extract only those representing residential properties for which groundwater use was registered. In order to identify the properties spatially, the addresses had to be converted to coordinates through a procedure called geocoding, so as to plot each spatially and obtain the attributes such as stand size, position and the unique Surveyor General's code. This was necessary in order to link the addresses to the municipal treasury system and obtain their latest available water consumption records using a commercial software package that incorporates consumer information.Next the actual annual water consumption figures were compared with recently published water demand guidelines based on stand size as single explanatory variable. The selected residential stands were divided into pre-defined stand size categories. The average water consumption of all the stands in each size category was calculated and compared with the suggested water demand as per the guidelines used, based on the centre value of the size range of each category.The results of the comparative analysis confirm findings from two earlier studies where lower municipal water use was reported for residential properties with access to groundwater in a summer rainfall region. The results further showed that the mean average annual potable water demand of consumers in the study area with access to groundwater was on average 31.4% lower than those considered without such access in the same region. This represents an average reduction of 333 l/stand/day (about 10 kl/stand/month) in the potable water demand of the selected residential stands.This study therefore confirms that serviced residential stands with access to private groundwater sources in the Cape Peninsula have lower average metered water consumption from the municipal supply system.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University