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fountains situated all over the town, John Chisholm replaced them with hand-operated

pumps. Fortunately one of these pumps has been preserved. It is situated at the corner of Sir
George Grey and Prince Streets in Oranjezicht, Cape Town.

Until 1840 the supply of water to Cape Town including shipping was the responsibility of the
Colonial Government. This was handed over to the municipality which was established that

year. Up to this time Cape Town obtained the whole of its water supply from springs and

streams which rise on the northern slopes of Table Mountain. Furthermore, the three
reservoirs built above the town to conserve these supplies were not sufficient for the growing

demand of water. As a result of this serious position, the Council decided in 1881 to seek the

advice of the then Hydraulic Engineer of the Cape Colony of Good Hope, Mr John Gamble.
He examined the Table Mountain area and in his report suggested constructing dam sites on

the back table of Table Mountain, utilising a stream running down Disa Gorge unchecked into

the sea at Hout Bay. He offered two schemes.

Scheme 1 was to construct a tunnel through the Twelve Apostles mountain range. A pipeline

in this tunnel was to tap the stream running into Orange Kloof and Hout Bay. The pipeline, 6
km in length, would run in front of the mountain above Camps Bay via Kloof Nek to the

Molteno Reservoir above Cape Town. Scheme 2 was to collect the water lower down in

Orange Kloof and take a pipeline over Constantia Nek along the southern slopes of the
mountain via the suburbs to the Molteno Reservoir.

John Gamble suggested with the first scheme a water-driven Turbine Generator could make
use of the power of the water flowing into the Molteno Reservoir from Kloof Nek to provide

electricity for lighting purposes. However, it was not until 1895 that this idea was adopted.

The Council delayed adopting either of these schemes until 1887; in fact they sold the plans

and development rights to a private company called the Table Mountain Water Supply
Company who, due to many reasons, mainly financial, were unable to carry out the scheme.

The Council had to buy the plans back again at twice their value.

The new chairman of the Waterworks Committee, a real driving force, insisted that the

Council adopt the Mr Gamble’s No. 1 Scheme. The Council gave the tunnel construction to a