SETTING IT STRAIGHT

A MISLEADING article “Desalination plant on ice after good rains”, which appeared in The Cape Argus of October 9, 2018, and which has been read by some of the Cape Times readers, judging from the letters pages, must be corrected. It wrongly creates the impression that plans for such a permanent plant were under way, but had been shelved.

The City’s response to the enquiry which lead to this article, included the following input:

The temporary desalination plants (Monwabisi, Strandfontein and Waterfront) are all operational.

They were part of the City’s drought emergency response and what it promised it would deliver.

The City’s latest Water Outlook document (which is available for all to see on the City’s website) refers to the consideration of permanent desalination as part of Cape Town’s water mix going into the future, along with other sources.

Cape Town is a growing city and desalination offers a drought-proof water source; as such desalination is highly likely to form part of Cape Town’s future water mix.

A permanent desalination project has thus not yet been triggered, but the City fails to see how this could lead to an interpretation that it has been placed “on ice”, which leaves the impression that the City is not pursuing such a plant.

Longer term planning and assessments of Cape Town’s water augmentation strategy are under way which will propose the way forward in consultation with all concerned.

The key to water resilience will lie in the diversification of water resources, to make Cape Town less dependent on rainfall as the primary source of potable water.

The City is looking at a basket of sources that will be to the benefit of its residents, including groundwater, desalination and water reuse.