Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane says it’s important to consider all strategies to obtain additional water.

Mokonyane says some of the options include desalination and ground water optimisation.

She says when the City of Cape Town approached her Department for help, they were ready to assist with desalination, but it had to be put on hold at the request of the City last year

“We issued a directive to our Umgeni Water Board for a ten mega litre plant of a desalinisation solution for an emergency intervention for the City of Cape Town. In the course of affecting that directive, we were also informed late last year that the city has opted to request that we stop the implementation of the desalinisation solution, so that they can assess the ground water availability. We are in consultation with the city, and through the resilience committee, the last meeting was held this past week where we are addressing that kind of response from the City of Cape Town, because we believe that no option must be put aside.”