Race to find solutions to Cape Town’s water crisis
CAPE Town will have its first desalination plants working just weeks before the city’s dams are expected to dry up.
That’s according to City of Cape Town informal settlements‚ water and waste services and energy mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg.
“Monwabisi and Strandfontein [plants] are scheduled for February, but we are exploring opportunities to implement earlier‚ once internal funding issues are resolved‚” Limberg said.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said earlier this month that the municipal water supply might run out in March, if usage remained the same.
The general manager of water solutions company Veolia‚ Chris Braybrooke‚ said that completion of tenders for the desalination plants‚ which first went public in August‚ should have taken place six months ago‚ and that the city’s water problem was a ticking time bomb.
“We were surprised that there was such a long wait for it to go out on formal tender‚ and then they asked for instant solutions‚” Braybrooke said. His company has built several desalination plants in South Africa – including the country’s largest in Mossel Bay.
Limberg said 17 sites were initially earmarked for desalination plants‚ but the number had been reduced after some of the sites were ruled out for being in coastal protected areas.