Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
No time to put desalination plants to the test
Urgency ‘ruled out environmental authorisations’
CAPE Town’s desalination projects are set to go ahead without any environmental impact assessments, confirmed city officials yesterday.
The city’s deputy mayor Ian Neilson said this was because water security was urgent and time was running out.
The city’s Day Zero, when municipal taps were expected to run dry due to water shortages, was put at May 11.
“Due to the declared emergency, no environmental authorisations were issued prior to construction of desalination plants,” said Neilson.
“Instead, the city (will) proceed with any necessary water augmentation projects without environmental authorisation, including the desalination plants and associated infrastructure.”
Neilson said city officials would monitor the dispersal of brine – a high-concentration solution of salt residue after desalination – pumped back into the ocean.
“Every site will be required to have an environmental control officer on site,” said Neilson.
The City plans to implement desalination plants at three sites – Monwabisi, Strandfontein and the V&A Waterfront.
It is also running groundwater abstraction initiatives to access aquifers in the city. Neilson said they were working with “industry specialists who have confirmed that they are in agreement with our groundwater abstraction targets”.
“This is supported by historic studies, updated modelling done as part of the current water resilience programme and preliminary results from recent geophysical surveys,” he said.
“Aquifers are considered for abstraction and as natural underground storage sites for water. As part of the city’s efforts to build resilience, we are working on finding a sustainable balance between storage on the surface (dams), and what we have in underground storage.”
Environmental lobby group World Wide Fund for Nature has been among voices warning that if aquifers were not carefully managed, the underground water source could be depleted or contaminated.
Trevor Balzer, deputy director-general at the national water and sanitation department, said they would “look at the environmental impact” of desalination.
The department has been in a public dispute with the Western Cape’s water crisis team, including Premier Helen Zille, about the cost of a proposed water desalination plant at the V&A Waterfront.
The city was already involved in implementing a desalination plant at the tourist hub. Waterfront management also wanted to install a desalination plant to secure water for the multibillion-rand business and hotel hub.
Balzer said: “In all probability our desalination plant might not go into the V&A Waterfront. It will go to another site. We are looking at a number of sites.”
He said the department’s plant would produce water that it would sell on to the city to “cover our costs”.
Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said this week that she did not know where the origin of the R400 million total that Zille has repeatedly referred to as a cost for the department’s desalination plant.
“It will cost R230m. Work is under way to confirm the site,” said Mokonyane.
The department plans to appoint Durban-based company Umgeni Water to install this plant.
The city has meanwhile confirmed that its contract with former DA leader Tony Leon’s company Resolve Communications has been terminated.
Weekend Argus reported last month that Resolve had been awarded a water crisis communications contract worth R650 000.
Des van Rooyen, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, told a parliamentary oversight committee this week that he wanted to investigate Resolve’s contract with the city. Van Rooyen sits on the national government’s inter- ministerial task team meeting on drought and water scarcity, which offered various updates on the country’s water security plans in Parliament on Thursday.
However, City officials yesterday confirmed that Resolve was no longer working with them. “The city will no longer be working with Resolve. We have not been formally notified of a pending investigation.”