Drinking Water Treatment

Day Zero: GrahamTek offers $2.1m temporary desalination plant to Cape Town

Feb. 1, 2018

Engineering company GrahamTek has built a desalination plant to provide emergency water supply during Day Zero, when water supply will run out in Cape Town...

Tom Freyberg

Content Dam Ww Online Articles 2018 02 Table Mountain

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Engineering company GrahamTek has built a desalination plant to provide emergency supply during Day Zero, when water is expected to run out in Cape Town.

The US$2.1 million plant has already been built, using reverse osmosis membrane technology, and will be able to provide between 2500 m3/day and 12,500 m3/day of potable water.

The company is in the advanced stages of negotiation with authorities to agree a location.

Julius Steyn, CEO of GrahamTek Holdings, told WWi magazine: “Day Zero will have a huge economic impact on businesses, with staff potentially having to take two to three hours per day off work to collected their allocated 25 litres.

“Our solution is two-fold: it will provide local businesses with water, as well as staff for their families, to avoid disrupting the working day.”

The company has historically provided utility-scale desalination projects with 80 percent of its project pipeline outside of South Africa. For this latest development, it has come up with a financial agreement for local businesses to enable it to provide the scaled down operation.

Commenting on the wider reasons for the drought and Day Zero situation in Cape Town, Steyn said it’s a question of “political will, not the intelligence involved or available capability”.

- The full interview with Julius Steyn and more in-depth analysis of Day Zero will feature in the Feb-March edition of WWi magazine – for your free subscription, click here.

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Day Zero moves forward as Cape Town’s water supplies run dry

About the Author

Tom Freyberg

Tom Freyberg is an experienced environmental journalist, having worked across a variety of business-to-business titles. Since joining Pennwell in 2010, he has been influential in developing international partnerships for the water brand and has overseen digital developments, including 360 degree video case studies. He has interviewed high level figures, including NYSE CEO’s and Environmental Ministers. A known figure in the global water industry, Tom has chaired and spoken at conferences around the world, from Helsinki, to London and Singapore. An English graduate from Exeter University, Tom completed his PMA journalism training in London.