Water, water everywhere – but not a drop to drink

This WWF South Africa fact sheet examines the role of desalination as a water source for Cape Town and South Africa, detailing the technical requirements, costs, and environmental impacts of the process.

• Desalination is an energy-intensive process that requires between 2 and 12kWh of electricity per 1,000 litres of water, depending on the method used, such as reverse osmosis, vapour compression, or membrane distillation.
• In South Africa, desalination is used by mines for treating polluted mine water and acid mine drainage, and by several municipalities for bulk water supply. Specific operational examples include Mossel Bay (15 million litres per day, currently on standby), Plettenberg (2 million litres per day), Ndlambe (two plants producing 1.8 and 0.75 million litres per day), and Richard’s Bay (installed during 2016/17 drought, operating at an average of 6 million litres per day).
• For Cape Town, desalination is considered a resource of last resort due to high costs and longer implementation times compared to drilling boreholes. While four small-scale plants are planned (Waterfront, Cape Town harbour, Monwabisi, and Strandfontein), the most cost-effective scale for the city would be between 150 to 200 million litres per day.
• Desalination presents significant environmental and economic risks. Environmentally, intake points can reduce fish populations by taking in small organisms, and the resulting concentrated brine containing biocides and antifouling chemicals can harm marine life. Economically, it is globally two to four times more expensive than other water sources; in Cape Town, smaller short-term desalination costs R34 to R44 per kilolitre, compared to R1 to R4 for raw surface water.
• The document cites Australia as a cautionary example of over-investing in desalination. Between the mid-1990s and 2012, Australia spent $10 billion Australian Dollars on six large-scale plants, but by the time they were operational, water policy reforms and efficiency measures had made desalinated water prohibitively expensive, leaving most facilities idle.

APA

WWF South Africa (n.d.). Water, water everywhere – but not a drop to drink. https://www.wwf.org.za:443/bucket_list/?24281/wednesday-water-file-07

Chicago

WWF South Africa. Water, water everywhere – but not a drop to drink. n.d. https://www.wwf.org.za:443/bucket_list/?24281/wednesday-water-file-07.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF South Africa |title=Water, water everywhere – but not a drop to drink |url=https://www.wwf.org.za:443/bucket_list/?24281/wednesday-water-file-07 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfsouthafricandwater, author = {{WWF South Africa}}, title = {{Water, water everywhere – but not a drop to drink}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, url = {https://www.wwf.org.za:443/bucket_list/?24281/wednesday-water-file-07}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }