Drought-hit town to get solar-powered desalination plant
The French government and the Western Cape provincial government have committed to invest R9m on a 50-50 basis in the country’s first solar-powered desalination plant‚ at Witsand in the Hessaqua municipality.
There are at least four desalination plants in the drought-hit province‚ with three in Cape Town and one in Mossel Bay‚ but the one in Witsand will be the first to be powered by solar energy.
Desalination plants are very energy intensive and when fossil fuels are used to generate the energy‚ this comes with carbon dioxide emissions and contributes to climate change.
French ecology minister Nicolas Hulot attended the launch of the project on Monday together with Western Cape finance MEC Ivan Meyer. The project will be commissioned at the end of October.