Desalination too expensive

IT is time the politicians start waking up and providing the basic services before building houses for political gain, or else we’ll be losing business not to other cities but to other countries.

We first had electricity problems (Port Elizabeth lost the proposed aluminium smelter) and now water!

Cape Town will be spending R56.75/m³ for water from the Monwabisi and Strandfontein desalination plants at a cost of R290-million and in the next two years.

Even if the dams fill up it will still be obliged to buy the water.

The same volume of water would have only cost Cape Town approximately R26-million at R5/m³ (that it is currently paying the government).

That is equivalent to 1 000 new RDP houses costing R125 000 each a year.

(See https://mg.co.za/article/2018-01-18-00sea-water-is-a-health-risk-say-profs )

Port Elizabeth doesn’t need desalination.

It has the biggest dam in South Africa feeding it.

It can hold 18 times the water volume than our current dams’ level.

That is equivalent to 40 years’ water at the metro’s 325 000m³ a day usage.

The politicians were told years ago that new treatment plants needed to be built. (Luckily we have Nooitgedacht water treatment plant on the way, 10 years too late.)

A large chocolate factory in Port Elizabeth is competing with its own factory in Egypt.

If the municipality keeps just charging business (the highest rates in South Africa, the second most expensive electricity, etc), the American owners look at the bottom line, not at the poor South African who needs work!

Politicians, it’s time to wake up – without a herd of cattle there will be no milk, let alone cream.

Cape Town is losing R1.5-billion profit (12 000 RDP houses) from water a year.

It didn’t spend a cent on new water sources over the last years as any businessman would have, if he saw his livelihood under threat.