Cape Town | Latest Burning Issues | Free PDF Download

ALIEN TREES AND DROUGHT IN CAPE TOWN

• South Africa’s city Cape Town, battling its worst drought in 100 years.
• The Western Cape region had gone without substantial rain for more than three years, forcing Cape Town authorities to slash residential water consumption.
• The South African city of Cape Town, which nearly ran out of water this year, could beat future droughts by cutting down nonnative trees including pine, acacia and eucalyptus, according to a study released

• • A report by the Nature Conservancy conservation group said that removing non-native water-hungry trees from catchment areas would be far cheaper than other solutions such as desalination plants.
  • Desalination, recycling waste-water, and tapping groundwater supplies cost on average 10 times more to supply each litre of water than clearing invasive trees, Non-native trees, which have spread from commercial

plantations and seeded hillsides, are far thirstier than indigenous vegetation such as local “fynbos” plants. They use more groundwater and interrupt rainfall that would otherwise run off into soil and rivers and feed dams.

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