[imagesource: Flickr]
The recent rains may have fogged our memories of the time when Helen Zille showed us how to bathe in a bucket, but the Western Cape is still a semi-desert region, and Day Zero might become a buzzword once again if we’re not careful.
With Zille’s hygiene in mind, the City of Cape Town is embarking on feasibility studies to investigate the most suitable options for construction, financing and operations of the planned Paarden Eiland Desalination Plant and Faure New Water Scheme, for purified recycled water.
The study will be undertaken by a suitably qualified advisory team, who have been appointed as approved by Council resolution.
In the face of climate change, unpredictable rainfall and a growing population, the City’s plans for a permanent desalination plant is a key project in the City’s New Water Programme (NWP) and Water Strategy, which aims to diversify drinking water supply resources.
The desalination project is expected to produce 50 to 70 million litres of water a day by 2030.
Overall, the City aims to add an extra 300 million litres of water per day from various sources, including desalination, water reuse, groundwater and clearing of alien invasive species.
Progress made on desalination to date includes:The IAP reviewed the technical, scientific, socio-economic, and regulatory aspects of the project, emphasising the long-term benefits of their input. The City is also pursuing a long-term phase 2 of the Memorandum of Agreement with the Water Research Commission. This will ensure the Scheme development continues the journey with the IAP.
“We are committed to advancing our water security by developing a permanent desalination plant, among all other interventions which comprise the New Water Programme”, says the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Councillor Zahid Badroodien.
“By leveraging on a diverse pool of expertise and exploring all feasible options for implementation, we are confident that Cape Town will establish quality technologies in water treatment from diverse sources, which meet safety, technical and regulatory standards.”
There are now about 21,000 desalination plants in operation around the globe, with the world’s largest desalination plant located in Saudi Arabia (Ras Al-Khair Power and Desalination Plant) with a capacity of 1,401,000 cubic meters per day.
Desalination is an artificial process by which seawater is converted to fresh water. The most common desalination processes are distillation and reverse osmosis.
[source:capetown.gov]
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