Cape wonders if minister’s water plan needs pinch of salt
● As the water vanishes, the mud appears. So it goes in Cape Town, where plans to desalinate seawater at the V&A Waterfront have exposed political faultlines in the fight against Day Zero.
Africa’s top tourist destination appears to be at the centre of a tug-of-war between the city council and the Department of Water and Sanitation over plans to augment dwindling supplies from dams.
Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has issued a directive to the city to prepare for a 10 million-litre-a-day desalination plant at the Waterfront, where the city is already more than halfway through constructing a smaller temporary plant.
Mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services Xanthea Limberg said this week that the city was flummoxed by the directive because it lacked essential details and the Waterfront was private property.
“Essentially [it] meant we had no say or choice,” Limberg told the Sunday Times. “It is not clear . . . whether the plant would be temporary or permanent. We were informed by this letter that we would require a large portion of land — about 4 800m² — at the V&A Waterfront. There are a number of things a little challenging around the minister’s directive. The city is already planning for temporary desalination at the V&A. And we don’t own the land. They [the V&A] kindly offered to let us place our plant on the property free of charge.”
Limberg said there would be “great complexities” if Mokonyane’s department expected the city council to give permission for another plant on private land.
But department spokesman Sputnik Ratau said it hoped to “join forces” with the city in establishing a desalination plant. Plans were still being finalised, he said.
Leonardo Manus, chief director of infrastructure for the department, said he believed the V&A was the department’s preferred location. V&A spokesman Donald Kau said it had dealt only with the council regarding the temporary plant.
Ratau said the question of who will pay for the desalination plant ordered by Mokonyane was still under discussion.
Limberg said: “It is not clear how much this would cost and how it would be structured, or if they are paying for any of it. [The directive] was incredibly vague . . . We are in the process of trying to get those details.”
A large desalination plant costs between R5-billion and R18-billion, commercial sources said. By comparison, Western Cape farmers estimate production losses of around R14-billion so far due to the drought.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba committed R6-billion to national drought relief, while Western Cape premier Helen Zille’s state of the province address said the city was spending R260million on aquifer drilling projects in 2017-18 and budgeting R5.9-billion for augmentation projects over five years
There is also confusion over Day Zero, when the city council says dam levels will be too low to keep taps running. While the council claims this will happen in July, the department insists there is enough water so long as the city cuts consumption.