In February 2016, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that the utility Umgeni Water in KwaZulu-Natal province was weighing a seawater desalination plant at the Illovo River. Intended to meet rising demand on the Upper South Coast within five years, it could have become the country's largest seawater plant. The news site News 24 objected that plankton would be drawn into the intake and that concentrated brine would be discharged 600 m offshore. According to News 24, only twelve people attended the environmental assessment hearing held the year before.
The report showed that intake losses and brine discharge were already publicly contested at an early planning stage of a large South African seawater project, while formal public participation stayed low.