What happens to Cape Town’s wastewater before it becomes drinking water?

The City of Cape Town urged residents to use water sparingly.

The City of Cape Town has begun procuring a private-sector partner to develop the Faure New Water Scheme, which will add purified recycled water to the city’s drinking-water supply.

While reports may have made it sound as though Capetonians could soon be drinking recycled water, we unpack what the City of Cape Town is actually planning.

The planned scheme will use advanced treatment technology to purify treated wastewater from the upgraded Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works.

Once this is done, the purified water will then be blended with dam water and treated again at the Faure Water Treatment Plant before entering the city’s potable-water network.

The project forms part of the City’s New Water Programme, which aims to diversify Cape Town’s water supply by developing additional sources that are less dependent on rainfall.

The City aims to add 300 million litres of drinking water per day from new sources by the mid-2030s.

According to the City’s feasibility study, the Faure New Water Scheme will source its water from the existing and recently upgraded Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works.

That treated wastewater will then be sent to a multi-barrier advanced water purification plant at the Faure Water Treatment Plant.

According to the City, the process is water reuse via the Faure New Water Scheme, which will provide purified recycled water to augment the surface-water sources supplying the existing Faure Water Treatment Plant.

The purified water will subsequently be blended with surface water from dams before augmenting the flow through the existing Faure Water Treatment Plant.

The City's feasibility study states that the maximum blend ratio is 33% purified recycled water, with the remainder being surface water.

The blended water will then pass through the existing Faure Water Treatment Plant.

The water produced by the advanced purification plant will be blended with dam water and will then augment the water entering the existing Faure Water Treatment Plant.

This means the purified recycled water will not bypass the City's existing treatment system and instead will become part of the water entering the existing plant for further conventional treatment before becoming part of the city's potable water supply.

In short, we cannot rely on rainfall collected in the dams. 

The City says its Water Strategy recognises the need for sufficient, reliable water from diverse sources and that Cape Town can no longer rely solely on rainfall collected in dams.

Because of this, the Faure New Water Scheme aims to diversify the city's water sources and expand its water supply capacity.

The scheme is designed to produce 100 million litres of purified recycled water per day, with an initial capacity of 70 million litres per day.

The timing of any increase from the initial 70 million litres per day will depend on factors including water demand and the availability of treated wastewater.

The City announced on September 25 2026 that it had begun the procurement process for the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Faure New Water Scheme.

The procurement will start with a Request for Qualifications, after which qualifying participants will be invited to the Request for Proposals stage, scheduled for the second half of 2027.

The project is being pursued through a public-private partnership, with the City saying the private-sector partner will finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the scheme in partnership with the City.

The City says the scheme is intended to provide a new, reliable source of drinking water while helping Cape Town diversify its water supply and strengthen its resilience as the city grows.