Cape Town gears up for permanent desal plant

The CoCT is enhancing the management of its existing water supply and pushing ahead with the objectives laid out in the Water Strategy to build resilience and water security.

According to the CoCT’s executive mayor, Alderman Dan Plato, improved water conservation has bought some time but – with droughts predicted to become more frequent and intense, and the area’s population continuing to grow – the municipality is working to diversify its water sources and increase its available supply.

The CoCT has already made progress in pursuing its New Water Programme, which aims to increase available water supply by 300 million litres per day over the next 10 years. The projects outlined in the programme, some of which are already under way, are designed to ensure that high-level water restrictions, such as those put in place during the recent drought, should not be required again in the near future.

Desalination ambitions The CoCT has confirmed that a permanent desalination plant is in the planning phase and is provisionally scheduled for completion in 2026/27. The cost of the plant, which will produce 50 million litres per day, is currently estimated at approximately R1.8 billion.

The permanent plant will be built using the experience gained from the temporary desalination plants built at Monwabisi, Strandfontein and the V&A Waterfront to provide emergency water supply during the drought.

According to Plato, the operation of the temporary desalination plants provided valuable hands-on experience in producing desalinated water, which will help as the CoCT works towards larger-scale desalination projects.

In addition to desalination, the Table Mountain Group Aquifer is already providing 15 million litres of groundwater per day and construction has commenced on the Cape Flats Aquifer Scheme. The CoCT is also working towards the implementation of a large-scale water reuse scheme by 2026 and continues to clear alien vegetation in its catchment areas.

Long-term water security “Our Water Strategy commits the city to not only becoming water resilient, but also to provide a service for all, which includes improving water and sanitation services in informal settlements, and to transform our relationship with water by becoming a water-sensitive city,” says Alderman Xanthea Limberg, MMC: Water and Waste, CoCT.

She adds that simultaneously fulfilling the Water Strategy’s other commitments around universal access and reducing pollution of urban waterways should see Cape Town entrench itself as the only African city to be a world leader in the provision of water and sanitation services. With droughts predicted to become more frequent and intense, the City of Cape Town (CoCT) has confirmed plans to build a permanent desalination plant.

The CoCT is also working towards becoming the first African member of the Leading Utilities of the World – a network of the world’s most forward-thinking water and wastewater utilities.

“The objective of the initiative is to create a global network of the world’s most successful and innovative water and wastewater utilities, to help drive performance across the sector by recognising achievement, providing a network for sharing ideas, and inspiring others to improve. We are confident that the city’s innovations in this sector to date place us in a position to start building a case for entry,” says Limberg.

With climate modelling as we know it no longer a reliable metric on which to predict the availability of water in terms of rainfall, the CoCT has affirmed its dedication to building on the resilience and partnerships that saw Team Cape Town avert Day Zero.