The Water Affairs Department and the municipality have signed an agreement for the release of R20,000,000 to construct the plant in drought-stricken Plettenberg Bay.

A similar plant opened in Sedgefield near Knysna a few months ago.

The municipality’s Henry Geldenhuys said it has managed to cut water usage by 40 percent since the drought set in.

He said tenders for the plant have already been advertised.

“We hope to finalise the tenders by the middle of June and have the plant completed by the end of October.”

This means sewage is not being adequately treated in most of SA’s 850 treatment works. Insufficiently treated water is discharged into local river systems, affecting downstream users such as farmers and rural communities, and degrading ecosystems.

But if sewage treatment works are not improved, SA could in time lose more of its water resources, putting more strain on agriculture. Fresh water is already in tight supply, with the Eastern Cape suffering a severe drought.

Half of municipalities did not take part in the report which was compiled from 2008 to last year.

Business Day said the report was meant to be released in November but had been kept under wraps.

It was expected to be made public yesterday.

Report by Business Day

Its best-case scenario it projects a water shortfall in two decades of 2.9 billion cubic meters, rising to 3.8 billion cubic meters if moderate climate effects are taken into account and 5.4 billion cubic meters with accelerated economic growth. Currently water supply is about 15 billion cubic meters.

But it says South Africa can close the gap provided it adopts a mix of solutions, chiefly infrastructure investment in water transfer schemes.

State-owned water utility Rand Water said last month that it faced a R5bn funding shortfall between 2010 and 2015, when it would invest R8.6bn to augment infrastructure.

The report, which looked at demand and supply in China, India, Brazil and South Africa, found that under an average economic growth scenario, world water requirements would surge to 6.9 trillion cubic meters – or 40 percent more than current accessible, reliable supply.

Desalination, the removal of salt from sea water, is listed among South Africa’s most expensive options. Van Olst said many people regarded desalination as a “silver bullet” but its carbon footprint was very high and transport costs restricted its use to coastal areas.
The report calls for strong co-ordination and co-operation between water users.

Van Olst believed water would be “high up” the agenda of National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel’s commission.

Manuel earlier this month noted that while alternatives existed to generate energy, there were none for water!

Africa should resist a course of “water for profit” in favor of water “as a right”, but he cautioned: “We’re living on earth in 2009 with the same amount of water that was available in 1900, meanwhile the global population has quadrupled”.

Local government MEC Anton Bredell told journalists in Cape Town on Wednesday that the province has recommended the district be declared a disaster area.

“We are facing a big disaster,” Bredell said. “I think it will be the first full-scale disaster that will hit the Western Cape if circumstances keep on deteriorating as we expect. The prediction is that it will get warmer rather than wetter.

“We as a Cabinet decided to recommend to the National Disaster Management Team that we declare the region a disaster area.  We have to prevent George, Knysna and Mossel Bay from running out of water. We are especially concerned about George.”

The province has received R53m from the government to fight the drought in the region.  “This is so big that we as a provincial government can’t tackle this alone,” Bredell said.  “National government has stepped in and the department of water affairs has stepped in to help. We are very grateful.”

Bredell has written to mayors of the municipalities in the region, requesting them to cut water consumption by 30%.