SPAIN has granted Morocco $14.3 million dollars to finance a seawater desalination plant that will supply water to the country's northeastern provinces of Al Hoceima and Nador.^[1]  The Spanish company of Tedagua has been contracted to build the facility. 

The plant supports the Moroccan government’s National Water Plan, “a benchmark strategy” for water policy formulated in 2015. ^[2]  The plan carries three key objectives: to provide universal access to drinking water and to improve the efficiency of the water supply network; to increase the water supply through the use of dams, desalination, and wastewater reuse; and to conserve water resources and adapt to the demands of climate change.^[3]

SINGAPORE’s national water agency the Public Utilities Board (PUB) has chosen the  Tuas Power-Singapore Technologies Marine Consortium (TP-STM) to build the island-nation’s fifth desalination plant.  TP-STM will form a concession company to enter into a Water Purchase Agreement (WPA) with PUB before the end of this month.^[4] 

The facility, to be located on Jurong Island, will add roughly 137,000 cubic metres of water per day to Singapore’s water supply by 2020.^[5]

The Environment and Water Resources Minister, Mr. Masagos Zulkifli, recently stated that the nation’s water use will more than double by 2060.  The development of the desalination sector as well as wastewater reuse will help officials to meet this demand.^[6]

GHANA – The country's Teshie-Nungua desalination plant is reportedly costing the Ghana Water Company  roughly $2.5 million a month, with revenue generation amounting to just $0.5 million over the same period.^[7]     The company’s chair and member of the Ghanian parliament, Alex Afenyo-Markin, has said that officials are investigating the matter, with a report on the future of the facility set to be released within the next two weeks.

When the project was commissioned in 2015 by former President John Mahama, it became West Africa’s first facility to be financed as a public-private partnership.^[8]

^{Credit: Desalination.biz}

SOUTH AFRICA –  By January 2018, temporary desalination facilities will begin supplying much needed water to the residents of Cape Town.^[9]   

At present, the city is in danger of running out of water if collective water usage does not decrease to a total of 500,000 cubic metres per day. Although summer begins in November, the city’s dams are already running relatively low, and the Cape Town council has activated an initial disaster management measure to diminish water use.^[10]