Page 95 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

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Fundamental to all of this development was the securing of an assured water supply, and so

this became the most urgent task facing the young municipality. To this end Mr T Stewart
was instructed on 25 April 1896 to prepare a water scheme. He duly submitted his plan to

Council on 6 June 1896 and by November 1897 the legalities relating to water rights had been

clarified, the necessary surveys of the Silvermine catchment had also been done, and three
potential dam sites has been identified in the upper catchment beyond the municipal

boundary.

Stewart’s plan indicated that a storage capacity of 15 million gallons was needed to tide over

the dry months from December to April, and meet the estimated daily demand of 100 000

gallons. He estimated that the reservoir would cost £20 000. After delays in raising the
necessary loan the advertisements calling for tenders for construction of the Scheme were

placed in May 1898. In September 1898 Mayor Meyer signed the contracts for construction of

the Scheme with Messrs Firth Bros the successful contractors of the Sea Point Municipal
drainage works, and the preliminary work commenced immediately. The reservoir was

situated 1485 feet above sea level in a catchment area of 370 acres and created a sheet of

water 8,5 acres in extent behind the 28 feet high dam wall. The possibility existed, at the cost
of a further £25 000, of later raising the wall by 20 feet and increasing the impounded volume

to 150 million gallons. When demand exceeded this amount there were further dam sites

which could be brought into operation. In 1918 plans were drawn up for a new dam but this
was never built.

With the completion of the scheme in November 1899 it was believed “that the Municipality
had made the first solid step towards rapid and substantial development......Thus the capitalist

and speculative builder may rest assured that the supply of water will not run short ....... “

(WT, 4/11/1899). The KB-MM appeared to have access to an assured water supply for well
into the future, and in time its water scheme came to be regarded enviously by Cape Town

and the other Peninsula municipalities, some of whom looked to the Silvermine catchment as
a possible source of their supplies. (WT 31/5/1902).

The water was led from the reservoir to the Service Reservoir on the slopes above
Muizenberg (close to the present junction of Boyes Drive and Old Boyes Drive) and then to

the settlements on the coast below. Altogether about 5 miles of pipes were laid down and the