The army and military police will assist police and provincial authorities to manage and safeguard water pods in the Western Cape. Police briefed the Provincial Parliament on its state of readiness.
Day Zero will come should dam levels drop to below 13%.
Municipal water supply will be cut and residents will collect water at over 200 Points of Distribution, or PODs.
Western Cape Deputy Police Commissioner, Major General Mpumelelo Manci, says they have enough resources and will be able to make sure that those resources are where they should be.
“We have got static deployment in terms of high and low risk and also over and above that, to our policing system that is in place, all of that will be properly managed to ensure that we deal with any incident that is cropping up. They are integrated also with other departments such as law enforcement, metro and traffic. The army has also dedicated its input and we shall also use our technical resources, the helicopters and all that will ensure that we deliver a safe and secure protection process.”
The army and Military Police will deploy 140 members across the metro. They will patrol high risk areas and escort water to the distribution points.
High risk areas include the Nyanga and Blue Downs clusters.
Western Cape Standing Committee on Community Safety Chair, Mireille Wenger says, “One was concerned about police resourcing but we were told in the committee that the number of police officers will be bolstered by law enforcement agencies and those will be coming from the city government, metro police as well as from the SANDF. So, we’ve been assured that there are plans in place for the points of distribution, but in addition normal policing will be able to continue as normal.”
Day Zero has been pushed back to July 9.
Dam levels for the Cape Town metro pole currently stand at just under 24%.
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