In October 2020, Cape Town ETC reported that the City of Cape Town planned a permanent desalination plant producing 50 million litres a day, or 50,000 m³/day, by late 2026. The cost was put at R1.8 billion. The temporary drought-era plants at Strandfontein and Monwabisi had been shut down; Strandfontein had supplied 3.8 billion litres over two years. Mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg said the lessons would feed into planning and running the larger plant.
The report showed how Cape Town turned lessons from the Day Zero drought into a multi-source water strategy in which desalination served as a reserve independent of rainfall.
Source: Cape Town ETC