Six days left! Share your thoughts on Cape Town's desalination plant feasibility study

The City has completed the feasibility study to determine the most feasible service delivery mechanism and contracting model for the implementation and operation of the planned Paarden Eiland Desalination Plant.

All residents and stakeholders are invited to comment on the outcome of the feasibility study, which will determine how the City’s first desalination plant will be built, operated and maintained. Comments are open until 31 August 2025.

The City is committed to achieving its ambitious commitment to produce 300 million litres of new water from new water sources by 2032.

The New Water Programme will ensure that 11% of Cape Town’s water supply will be sourced from seawater desalination to help meet a growing demand and improve resilience.

About permanent desalination:

• Desalination is a technological process solution to remove salts from seawater, then processing it further to make it suitable and safe for human consumption.
• In the face of climate change, unpredictable rainfall and a growing population, this proposed plant forms part of the City's various water augmentation projects in the City's New Water Programme (NWP) and Water Strategy, which aims to diversify drinking water supply resources and build a resilient future supply.

• The planned permanent desalination plant is expected to produce between 50 and 70 million litres of water per day. Overall, the Water Strategy aims to increase the city's water supply by an additional 300 million litres from diversified sources.

Some key points and recommendations in the study are:

• The recommended procurement model for the project is an external service delivery mechanism delivered through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
• The recommended PPP structure is for the private party to design, finance, build, operate and maintain the plant for 20 years before transferring it to the City.
• The plant will remain City-owned.
• The unique risk profile of desalination projects makes these facilities particularly well-suited to benefit from a PPP.

The full report can be accessed here.

Submit your comments by Sunday, 31 August 2025:

• Email: public.participation@capetown.gov.za
• Online: www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay
• Deliver your written comments by hand to your nearest Sub-councils office: https://bit.ly/3CUlnKW
• Caption: The proposed site location for the Paarden Eiland Desalination Plant.

The Constitution requires that municipalities provide water services to communities. The City is the designated water services authority and owns all existing and planned water services infrastructure in Cape Town. We also currently operate all of our drinking water supply systems. The City will remain the owner of the desalination plant.

However, the complex nature and cost of a sustainable desalination plant require us to explore the feasibility of all potential options to construct and/or operate this projectfor a period.

"Even though this part of the public participation process does not require any face-to-face engagements, the City will host one in-person public participation session in order to ensure that this process is as fair and transparent as possible. Your valuable input will help shape the final feasibility study before it is considered by Council in December 2025."

- Zahid Badroodien, Water Directorate - City of Cape Town