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TUESDAY 21 July 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
@ThePeoplesPost
People’s Post
STRANDFONTEIN
Plant decommissioned SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS SAMANTHA.LEE@PEOPLESPOST.CO.ZA @SAMANTHA_LEE121
Ward 75 councillor Joan Woodman, Mayco member for water and waste Xanthea Limberg and Ward 43 councillor and subcouncil 23 chair Elton Jansen visited the desalination plant last month.
A
fter contributing billions of litres of water to the city’s water supply, the Strandfontein Desalination plant has officially been decommissioned. Erected along the parking area of the Strandfontein Pavilion in 2018, the plant has contributed 3.8 billion litres of desalinated water to the city’s water supply. Dismantling of the plant is currently under way. As a result, sections of Strandfontein beach will be closed intermittently for the decommissioning of the desalination plant as from yesterday, Monday 20 July. Access from the tidal pool entrance to Strandfontein beach will be closed for the duration of the project. The three desalination plants – Strandfontein, Monwabisi and The Waterfront – were always meant to be temporary and were established at the height of the city’s worst recorded drought in 2018. By May 2018, the Strandfontein plant was contributing 7 million litres of water to the supply per day. Wynand Wessels, project manager for Water Solutions – Proxa Joint Venture, said to People’s Post at the time: “This is a temporary installation with a two-year supply contract with the City. This will supply directly to the City’s water supply (immediately when online). Following the two years, the plant will be removed as the property of Water Solutions – Proxa Joint Venture.” According to Wessels, it took around 15 million litres of seawater to produce seven million litres of drinking water and the water was pumped from around one kilometre out to sea and run through a filtration system that separates the brine solution, which was then pumped back out to sea. As water supply shifts back to surface water, residents are advised that there may be a slight change to the taste of water, however, the water adheres to strict SANS 241 standards and is safe to drink. Mayco member for water and waste Xanthea Limberg says the City has acquired valuable knowledge through hands-on experience about the operation of this alternative water technology.
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“We are now confident that we are capable of successfully pursuing the large scale desalination project included in the water strategy: our road map towards greater resilience and water security in the face of shifting climate realities,” she says. “This was a first for the City, and the experience of the past two years has taught us a lot about the management of a desalination plant. They say that one should never let a good crisis go to waste, and while the going was tough during the worst drought in our recorded history, this project has shown that we can produce clean, SANS 241 approved drinking water through desalination. Successfully concluding this project brings us a step closer towards achieving resilience through alternative water sources and large scale desalination in the coming years.” The desalination plant was decommissioned a month earlier than scheduled, at the contractor’s request, due to demand for modular desalination elsewhere in the world. The area on which the plant was built will be restored to its former condition under the
supervision of an environmental control officer. The plant also provided job creation for the surrounding community, says Limberg. She thanks the community and roleplayers for their support. Ward 43 councillor and subcouncil 23 chair Elton Jansen says: “Subcouncil 23 is proud to have been the host community for this plant, and played their part in helping Cape Town through the height of this historic drought.” “The drought had a major impact on the entire City of Cape Town’s water supply. We were in unprecedented times and the fact that Strandfontein was selected as a site where seawater could be processed into drinking water was a big deal for me,” Jansen says. “While other communities elsewhere in the City (felt it) might have been selfish to have the site set up on their ‘front door’ I felt that we needed to support this due to the crisis the City faced at the time. We cannot be apprehensive all the time. We need to look at the bigger picture and the greater good of the community.”
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The rehabilitation process will also see jobs created for locals, says Jansen. “The site is currently being decommissioned and the area will be rehabilitated to its original state. Local expanded public works Programme (EPWP) workers will be appointed during this period and the City will oversee the process to make sure the company rehabs the area,” he says. Residents are reminded that the area will be treated as a construction site and that all applicable safety practices and procedures will apply. Sections will be closed to ensure public safety during the dismantling of the plant and the closure of some sections of the beach will remain in place to also allow for the transportation of equipment from the coastal site. The duration of this process will be impacted by inclement weather and rough sea conditions and, therefore, a completion date is unavailable. Beaches, however, remain closed to the public under the current regulations of the lockdown.
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