The City of Cape Town’s Council established the Water Quality in Wetlands and Waterways Advisory Committee in March 2022 to advise the City on the quality and health of Cape Town’s rivers, vleis and waterways. The committee consists of City councillors, aquatic ecologists, and citizen scientists. It concluded its work for the year with the recent announcement of Cape Town’s accreditation as an international Wetland City.

Cape Town’s waterways consists of 1 910km of rivers and streams, and 4 164 natural and semi-natural wetlands, including our vleis and estuaries. These systems can unlock social, economic, and environmental opportunities for the City and its residents.

‘I want to thank the committee members for their dedication and commitment in advising us with the challenges we are facing with the cleaning of our waterways and wetlands. The challenges are wide ranging, require a systematic approach, and most importantly: support from experts and our communities. Improvements will not happen overnight, but we have already made good strides.

‘Last month we appointed environmental consultants to help investigate and assess short-term interventions to restore the environment at the Milnerton Lagoon in the shortest possible time; we are busy finalising the Diep River Estuary Management Plan; and on 10 November at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Geneva, the City of Cape Town was granted accreditation as an international Wetland City. This is a huge honour and recognition of the work the City has undertaken to date to protect, rehabilitate and restore our wetlands. We concluded our last meeting of the year on a high note, while also acknowledging we have a lot to do when we return in 2023,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor, and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

‘I am proud of the work done by the Wetlands Committee team. It is a one of a kind structure in local government that brings the brightest minds in water conservation to the centre of our inland water quality programme. At least thirty interventions made by members have tangibly improved inland water quality governance and interventions by the City of Cape Town. The scientific oversight improved by the wetlands committee has laid the foundation for improved water quality for biodiversity and people,’ said Councillor Alex Lansdowne, Committee Chair.

Source: City Of Cape Town