The Western Cape’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) provided data proving that investing in the clearing of alien vegetation from critical catchments will yield water at a cost twelve times less than the cost of desalination plants. The increased water comes because alien trees suck up water in the soil and reduce groundwater levels, and so reduce the seepage and flows – especially during the dry season – to our dams. When the trees are removed, we get more water to the dams.

Over the past four years the Western Cape Province was in the midst of the worst drought on record. Information from DEADP shows R40-million was spent by the department on invasive clearing programmes. This is about 1% of its budget. More than six times this amount has been spent on each of the City’s small desalination plants.

On Wednesday the City announced it is now considering another new desalination plant. The volume of water the suggested 50Ml/day desalination plant will produce is more than three and a half times the combined volume (14Ml/day) of the City’s present three plants. But the City has struggled to keep its existing desalination plants operational. Despite the R240-million cost ratepayers have borne for each small desalination plant, the plants have not worked well and do not belong to the ratepayers who paid for them, but instead to the developers who were awarded the contracts.

More important, World Bank experts said the small plants being considered by the City would be very expensive.

Up until September 2017, the City of Cape Town’s water augmentation programme had been developed and implementation overseen by DA politician Xanthea Limberg, the Mayoral Committee member responsible for water, and Craig Kesson, a former DA researcher, now a Director in the City. Their initial water augmentation plan included more than a dozen small desalination plants. As part of that plan, three desalination plant tenders were awarded in 2017 for Monwabisi, Strandfontein and the V&A Waterfront.

When the team’s promise of hundreds of millions of litres of water through emergency schemes never came online, and costs continued to rise, then-Mayor Patricia de Lille became very concerned. By October 2017 she had assumed direct oversight of the water programme.

In November 2017, World Bank experts told the City of Cape Town not to build or procure small and medium sized plants – anything smaller than 100Ml/day. The international experts warned that small desalination plants would “provide minimal to no relief in terms of public water supply challenges and will produce water at unreasonably high costs”. This information was provided to De Lille in December 2018.

Following the advice of the World Bank experts, the former mayor immediately announced a shift in focus to cheaper options such as groundwater. Just weeks later, the DA’s Federal Executive decided to end her role in overseeing the City’s response to the prolonged drought.

De Lille was removed from overseeing the water programme in January 2018. Ian Nielsen took over and announced within a fortnight that more tenders for desalination plants would be issued. Six weeks after Ian Nielsen’s promise of more desalination plants, the Mail and Guardian referenced a desalination deal that was due to be awarded to the Fluence Corporation. This desalination project was to “deliver 50-million litres of water a day”. Unfortunately, the same report notes that the other desalination projects had run over budget and, at the time, there was no money for another plant. It is interesting that this is exactly the same size plant being mentioned by the City of Cape Town now, but is far below what World Bank experts had recommended would be cost effective.

We can now see that the November 2017 warnings from the World Bank experts were valid. The three desalination plants approved as part of the initial Limberg/Kesson water augmentation plan yielded, when operating optimally, just 14Ml/day. This was less than 3% of the city’s emergency 500Ml/day water needs. The Mail and Guardian reported that Proxa, the company awarded these contracts, “was paid R500-million to build the plants…. The deal [will run] for two years, after which the plants will be closed down.”

That closure period is coming soon and a new desalination plant is being suggested for residents of Cape Town. GOOD is concerned that another attempt to fleece taxpayers is under way. Residents should note that:

• In seeking another smaller (50Ml/day) desalination plant, Xanthea Limberg and her team are once again ignoring the advice of international experts who warned against these expensive plants; and

• Most critically, low-tech, labour-intensive cheaper options are available that can increase water yields from our catchments at a fraction of the cost of delivering water from desalination plants. These Green Economy options can also assist us to address rising unemployment, which is critical for our country.

Mike Muller, former DG of Water Affairs, now professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s school of governance, in 2018 issued a warning about desalination plants; “if you throw enough money at the problem, you can get what you want. But Capetonians will have to pay and I would be concerned that it will increase water costs dramatically.”

Indeed, I think Capetonians have paid enough. What we need is:

1. Given that the City of Cape Town leaders appear to be ignoring international expert advice and inexplicably continue with expensive small desalination plants, a great deal of circumspection and an appeal for direct National Treasury oversight in awarding any further desalination deals should be requested.

2. All provincial governments should rapidly increase their spending on invasive alien clearing in critical catchments. Most of these critical catchment areas are outside the municipalities they serve and thus the municipalities are not permitted to spend money in those places. For a small cost, the provinces can help increase employment and water security through these actions.

Our country needs to work smarter and use our resources, and limited tax income, as efficiently as possible for the benefit of all South Africans and our environment. DM

Mark Rountree is National Policy Officer for the GOOD party.