The City of Cape Town and the South African Football Association (Safa) will work together to manage playing fields and ensure they are used in a manner that won’t cause further damage as a result of the drought, the City said yesterday.
“Cape Town is currently experiencing a serious drought and there is absolutely no option of irrigating fields with potable water, even in exceptional circumstances,” it said.
The majority of the City’s sports fields had not been irrigated for months.
The City has over 500 sports fields and 50 percent of these were in a state of distress.
Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security and Social Services, JP Smith, says: “A triage system has been developed in order to categorise field conditions by assigning a red, amber or green status to each on a weekly basis.
“These categories have corresponding usage conditions where play on some fields will be suspended immediately and limited to two or three hours per week on others,” Smith said.
A task team will continually monitor field conditions, and ensure provisions were taken to enable special events in the soccer calendar to take place.
The City has also reiterated it’s commitment to improving the Athlone Stadium to provide a top-class facility for local clubs, and broader soccer community.
The City had invested in 29 synthetic pitches.
It said these pitches did not require water for irrigation and could withstand unlimited hours of play.