Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/946410
6 The Quarterly March 2018 Water. desalination + reuse South Africa City of Cape Town counts down to 'day zero' Water rationing hits 50 litres a day per person United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi kicks off desal mega project Emirate seeks developers for large scale reverse osmosis plant Sri Lanka Island nation to boost desalination capacity Projects move ahead in southern and northern provinces What happened? Who covered it? Why does it matter? Media outlets around the globe woke up to the unfolding crisis in Cape Town, as #dayzero began trending on Twitter. The alarming prospect of a major emerging- economy city of half-a-million inhabitants running clean out of water prompted column inches in publications from the New York Times to the New Scientist, the Financial Times, Le Figaro, CNN, the BBC, Wired… the list goes on and on – many showing satellite images of the depleted water resources in the city's major dams. As Water. desal + reuse went to press, 'day zero' was anticipated for 9 July. Gulf media reported the new project a er Saif Saleh Al Seairi, acting director general of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), unveiled the details during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January. ADWEA sought expressions of interest from developers for a 909,000 m3/d seawater reverse osmosis facility. The capacity will comprise two units each of 455,000 m3/d at Taweela power and water complex, 45 kilometres north of Abu Dhabi city. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved additional finance of $120 million for a 24,000 m3/d desalination plant and associated infrastructure at Jaffna Peninsula, in Sri Lanka's northern province, in December 2017. The desalination plant forms part of Jaffna and Kilinochchi water supply project, which received $90 million from ADB in 2010. Public Finance International wrote: "The overall desalination project cost is estimated at $266 million, including the additional financing." The inhabitants of Cape Town are already rationed to 50 litres of water per person a day, and if supplies run out, the city will resort to delivering water by standpipes in the street. Beyond the obvious strain on the people of Cape Town, the crisis marks the first globally reported case of a large city that could be tipped out of economic, political, and social balance by a chronic shortage of water. The role of desalination and water reuse as part of the response has been widely reported, with questions related to cost and environmental impact featuring significantly in this coverage. The new desalination capacity marks the start of what's expected to be a gradual shi away from thermal desalination to reverse osmosis throughout the whole of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It reflects a move across UAE to develop more renewable and nuclear energy and to move away from a reliance on oil and gas. Projects for more new desalination capacity are likely to come forward within the coming two to three years, with part of the aim being to manage water and energy in a more integrated way across the region (see page 18). The project is part of a wider programme of activity in the water sector in Sri Lanka. In November 2017, Sri Lanka's Board of Investment issued a request for proposals for a 20,000 m3/d desalination plant in Hambantota, southern province. Additionally, Veolia was awarded a $164 million contract through local subsidiary OTV, to design and build a water treatment and conveyance network in the Greater Matale, central province, back in February 2017. The Quarterly 909,000 m3/d new capacity THE KEY NUMBER