Plans to get a desalination plant off the ground, have begun with a feasibility study.
Plans are to build a plant in Paarden Eiland.
Desalination is a scientific process of removing salts from sea water, then processing it further for consumption.
The City of Cape Town said it now has a combination of initiatives to meet a growing demand, including desalination, water re-use, clearing of invasive plant species and groundwater schemes. Together these initiatives make up the City of Cape Town’s newest plan (NWP).
This plan to increase drinking water supply by 300 million litres a day, was unveiled at an energy and waste water forum, last week.
The planned desalination plant is expected to produce between 50 and 70 million litres of water per day.
Zahid Badroodien, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member (MMC) for Water and Sanitation, said ‘Cape Town has already allocated the largest CAPEX budget to Water and Sanitation, making us one of the leading infrastructure investors in the country. We are future-proofing our city by investing in infrastructure at a rate far outpacing any other metro, in fact over the next three years, we will invest R43bn, which is more than Joburg and Durban combined.”
Water and Sanitation investment now makes up 42% of Cape Town’s R120 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline.
Industry experts presented on other relevant topics including innovation in desalination technology and a guide to water resilience.
Picture: Supplied