Blog

Desal Data Weekly - April 24th, 2017

Posted 24 April, 2017 by Mandy

apr 25_1.png

 Credit: EWA

IN SOUTH AFRICA, a new public-private initiative may yield a large-scale desalination plant for Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape Province.[1]  The initiative involves officials from the beer maker SABMiller, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, and the salt producer Marina Sea Salt. The impetus for the project is the national government’s Business-Adopt-a-Municipality scheme—which seeks to strengthen municipal infrastructure by fostering closer ties between government, business, and state-owned entities.[2]

 

POSEIDON has spent more than $1.6 million on lobbying and campaign contributions to promote its desalination projects in California.  As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the company is now paying Senator Barbara Boxer of California to endorse its proposed plant in Orange County.[3]  Boxer will lobby the California Coastal Commission on behalf of the business.  The Coastal Commission and Poseidon have not yet established an agreement on the type of seawater intake methods that the $1 billion-dollar facility will use.

The California Coastal Protection Network, a nonprofit environmental group, has expressed disappointment in Boxer’s endorsement of the project.  Boxer, however, has said that the underdevelopment of desalination infrastructure in the state would create an overreliance on “big dams that destroy our rivers and our fisheries” as well as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.[4]

 

MUMBAI’s ambitious plans for a desalination plant have collapsed.[5]  As early as last year, the project failed to garner the support it needed.  A 2016 report issued by the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation stated that the projected energy costs required an unfeasible level of financial investment.  The report further stated that investment in dam infrastructure would yield a more robust water supply while incurring fewer costs.[6]

apr 25_2.png

Credit: EWA

Abengoa and Fisia Italimpianti (of Salini Impregilo) will design and build a desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, for the state-owned Saline Water Conversion Corporation.[7]  The plant will be located along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Coast, where it will deliver up to 250,000 cubic metres of water per day to more than a million residents in the cities of Mecca, Jeddah, and Taif.[8]   Construction is due to be finished by May 2019.

 

apr 25_3.png

Credit: EWA

 

PALL WATER, the water filtration specialist that operates under the Danaher Corporation, will now operate in cooperation with the companies of Danaher’s Water Quality Platform.[9]  These companies include brands such as Hach, Trojan Technologies, and ChemTreat.  Pall Water focuses its efforts on three key areas: its mobile water treatment portfolio; cartridge filtration; and advanced wastewater techniques, such as direct potable reuse.[10]

 

 

 

[1] “South Africa Fosters Public-Private Co-operation on Desalination,” Desalination.biz, April 19, 2017, <https://www.desalination.biz/news/0/South-Africa-fosters-public-private-co-operation-on-desalination/8724/> accessed April 20, 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Bettina Boxall, “Barbara Boxer will Lobby for an Environmentally Controversial Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2017, <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-boxer-poseidon-20170419-story.html> accessed April 21, 2017.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Dhaval Kulkarni, “Desalination Plant Will Not See Light of Day,” DNA India, April 12, 2017, <http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-desalination-plant-will-not-see-light-of-day-2397246> accessed  April 17, 2-17.

[6] Ibid.

[7] “Saudi Arabia Awards Desalination Plant,” The Construction Index, April 19, 2017, <http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/saudi-arabia-awards-desalination-plant> accessed April 22, 2017.

[8] “Abengoa to Develop Shoaiba III, its Largest Desal Project Yet,” Desalination.biz, April 19, 2017, <https://www.desalination.biz/news/0/Abengoa-to-develop-Shoaiba-III-its-largest-desal-project-yet/8723/> accessed April 22, 2017.

[9] “Pall Water Now Operating Under Danaher Corporation,” Industrial Water World, April 10, 2017, <http://www.waterworld.com/articles/iww/2017/04/pall-water-now-operating-under-danaher-corporation.html> accessed April 15, 2017; and “Danaher Draws Pall Water Closer to its Water Quality Unit,” Desalination.biz, April 19, 2017, <https://www.desalination.biz/news/0/Danaher-draws-Pall-Water-closer-to-its-Water-Quality-unit/8718/> accessed April 15, 2017.

[10] “Pall Water Now Operating Under Danaher Corporation,” Industrial Water World.

Continue reading