The City of Cape Town says all its various water projects are now on track but we still need to all be saving water.
All three of Cape Town’s desalination plants are now fully functional, reports EWN.
This comes after major delays at the Monwabisi desalination plant due to disputes between the City and the local community. Monwabisi is now also fully functional, and is capable of producing seven million litres of water a day.
Inspired by the Target 140 Campaign implemented in South East Queensland, Australia, Cape Town embarked on reducing water usage. So far residents’ water usage dropped below 50 litres per person per day, making the City’s Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Programme one of the most successful water conservation projects globally!
With no end to the drought in sight, the City approved plans in November 2017 to build desalination plants to turn salty sea water into potable water.
Construction began in December at the V&A Waterfront with the first approved site which would feed two million litres of water into municipal networks every day.
The harbour site will allow the City to draw water from the harbour and pump the salt brine residue into the ocean. As David Green, V&A Waterfront chief executive officer, explained: “At peak we have about 7m tidal waves, which means that there is no issue in terms of marine life, the brine is cleared immediately.”
There are currently three desalination plants in Strandfontein, V&A Waterfront, and Monwabisi and the city’s Xanthea Limberg says that collectively the three plants are producing eight million litres of water a day but that doesn’t mean we can stop our water saving efforts.
Even with the rains, the dams in and around Cape Town which form part of the Western Cape Water Supply System are still not full enough.
See the reading for today, 3 August 2018.
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I read the comments by Naeemah Borrien with interest. I would guess that all desalinated water in Cape Town is pumped into a nearby reservoir & mixed with water from other sources, so there is no way anyone could taste desal water directly, unless you drank it directly at the desal plant. I have had personal experience in the S Cape drinking desal water from the sea, at the desal plant & it tasted just like water from the tap.