The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate continues to work closely with the City’s Urban Mobility Directorate to make strong progress in reducing the backlog of outstanding trench reinstatements following essential underground water and sanitation repairs. 

The City thanks residents for their patience as teams continue restoring roads, pavements and driveways safely and efficiently across Cape Town.  

As at 15 October 2026, 85% of verified outstanding reinstatements from the 2025/26 financial year had been attended to, with 2 335 still requiring attention.

Work on older outstanding reinstatements is also progressing, with 97% of those from the 2024/25 financial year completed. Currently, 375 notifications from that period remain open.
 
To speed up delivery, the City has increased the number of dedicated validators from four to 10 and is adding project management and verification capacity. Additional contractors and work packages are also being introduced in priority areas. 

Partnership helps accelerate reinstatement work

The Water and Sanitation Directorate is working with the City’s Urban Mobility Directorate through its Road Infrastructure Management (RIM) Department, to reduce the backlog. Since the partnership began in April/May 2026, RIM has completed 5 000 of the 5 878 reinstatements assigned to it.

‘We know that residents want to see their roads, pavements and driveways properly restored as soon as possible after repairs to water and sanitation infrastructure. While we cannot address the entire backlog overnight, we are making progress and putting additional resources in place to get more reinstatement work completed,’ said Alderman Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.
 
Reinstatement work is planned in the coming weeks across the following areas:

Parow North, Kempenville, Balvenie Estate, Goodwood Estate, Vredehoek, Woodstock, Observatory, Strandfontein, New Woodlands, Manenberg, Bishop Lavis, Adriaanse, Matroosfontein, Bonteheuwel, Langa, Athlone, Strand, Helderzicht, Somerset West, Macassar, Hillcrest Heights, Belhar Ext 20, Oakdene, Kenilworth, Newlands, Claremont, Malibu Village, Mfuleni, Heldervue, Parklands, Milnerton Ridge, Sunningdale, Table View, Bracken Heights, Eikendal, Boston, Panorama, Bothasig, Tafelsig, Woodlands, Portland, Eastridge, Somerset West, Strand, Beacon Valley, Eersterivier, Highbury Park and Forest Heights. 
 
Should any temporary reinstatement become unsafe, residents need to please email water.escalations@capetown.gov.za with the service request number and a photo to request a make-safe intervention.