“We Drink Dinosaur Urine”: SA Unimpressed With Cape Town’s Plans to Treat Sewage for Drinking Water

• Cape Town's city government announced plans to recycle sewage into drinking water to reduce reliance on rainfall
• Treated wastewater from areas like Khayelitsha, Delft and Blue Downs would be processed at two wastewater treatment plants
• South Africans online were divided, with some cracking jokes, others questioning why desalination was not the answer instead

Cape Town is working towards turning sewage into drinkable water, and South Africans have a lot of feelings about it.

The Western Cape story went viral after Cool Story Bru shared a video on 28 September 2026 breaking down the city's water recycling plans. The creator explained that Cape Town wants to develop more reliable water sources rather than remain dependent on unpredictable rainfall.

How Cape Town plans to recycle sewage

The plan involves sewage collected from areas including Khayelitsha, Delft and Blue Downs being sent to two wastewater treatment plants, where it would be thoroughly cleaned and treated to meet safe drinking standards. The idea is not entirely new. South Africa already practices indirect potable reuse in most cities, where treated sewage is released into rivers and dams before being drawn back into drinking water systems downstream. Towns such as Beaufort West have gone further, running direct reclamation plants that turn treated wastewater straight into tap water. Windhoek in Namibia has operated a similar system for decades.

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The video also raised a broader question: if Cape Town's plan succeeds, which other water-stressed provinces in South Africa might follow?

A key challenge remains the state of municipal infrastructure. The Department of Water and Sanitation has flagged that many wastewater treatment works across the country are under severe strain, with raw or poorly treated sewage sometimes contaminating natural water sources before it can be re-purified.

Watch the video that got South Africa talking:

Mzansi reacts to the Cape Town announcement

The comments section on the Facebook page was a mix of scepticism, dark humour and genuine questions:

@Jacques Art Nel wrote:

"And how do they filter out drugs and chemicals in water. Sounds like a 'high' quality water."

@Waida Ajmdn said:

"They will probably give the first recycled sewerage water to the Cape Flats."

@Lilo Rooi added:

"The data centres will get fresh water and we need to die on kak water."

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@Mpumelelo Maabane joked:

"I thought we've been doing it all along."

@Taariq Abdullah noted:

"Been the case since forever, we basically drink dinosaur urine."

@Hannu Vanderwalt shared:

"Very common here in the US. I built a water treatment facility here in Utah a few years back."

@Kabelo Machimana asked:

"So they chose poo water over sea water."

Several commenters pointed out that Cape Town is surrounded by ocean and questioned why more investment has not gone into desalination instead. Others noted that water recycling has been quietly happening across South Africa for decades, making the announcement less shocking than it appeared.

More on Cape Town water and sewage

• Briefly News recently reported how Scandal! actor Litlhonolofatso Litlhakanyane and his family abandoned their Vaal home after years of sewage flooding.
• A disturbing sanitation discovery in Bhambayi, Inanda, saw a human foetus found inside a portable chemical toilet during a blockage clearance.
• A South African engineer explained how poorly treated sewage is contributing to the massive water hyacinth crisis at Hartbeespoort Dam.

Source: Briefly News