Desalination for SA by 2030
2009-02-23 22:03
Port Elizabeth - South Africa could be getting up to a tenth of its drinking water from the sea within the next two decades, the Department of Water Affairs said on Monday.
"We're looking to have about 8 to 10% of South Africa's water to come from desalination by about 2030," said deputy director-general of national water resources and infrastructure, Cornelius Ruiters.
Speaking at the Implementing Environmental Water Allocations (IEWA) conference in Port Elizabeth, he said the city being looked at to start such a large-scale project to remove salt and produce potable water was Port Elizabeth.
"At the moment Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth) is one of the coastal cities we're looking at, the other is Cape Town."
Asked what the cost would be, he said it would likely run into billions.
"I's going to be huge investment. We still have to work out the economics - it's going to be billions," he said.
The department currently supplies about 4.6 billion cubic metres of drinking water a year. One tenth of this - the proportion the department proposes be produced through desalination - is 460 million tons of water.
- SAPA