The Western Cape is experiencing the worst drought in 104 years and has been declared a disaster area which is currently under Level 4B Water Restrictions which calls for residents to use a maximum of 87 litres of water per person per day.
Despite being the wet season, rainfall has been sporadic and insufficient and the dam levels are still woefully low. Government officials are predicting that it will ‘take years’ for the dams to reach even an average level.
NuWater, a company based in their brand new, custom-built facility in Muizenberg, and which has a diverse portfolio of water treatment solutions, has stepped forward with an innovative solution and some grand plans for the Mother City.
NuWater already has plants in Sedgefield, Witbank, Richards Bay and even as far as uses a new Ghana, and uses Reverse Osmosis (RO), a method of producing pure water from sea water, which is highly suitable to the Western Cape, which is surrounded on two sides by the ocean and has large swathes of ocean frontage.
The difference in NuWater’s desalination process is that the company uses a patented a model that utilises a 16-inch diameter of the membrane element, rather than the standard eight-inch models. Hydraulic conditions are produces which result in water being pressured through microscopic holes in a membrane, leaving behind all traces of salt, minerals and contaminants.
The great thing about NuWater is that it can establish water treatment facilities that can produce five million litres a day within a mere four weeks, and can add another 5MLD on a weekly basis after the initial set up.
While desalination can be part of the solution to Cape Town’s water woes, it will take more than this to ensure resilience in the future – a combination of seawater desalination, effluent reclamation, groundwater treatment, harvesting, ensuring that the correct standard of water is utilised for every specific application and water conservation will all have to play a part.
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