In June 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Cape Town had issued a request for information on desalination and other advanced water treatment in response to drought. The city wanted partners to provide, set up and run temporary reverse osmosis units on its coast and at some inland sites, feeding drinking water into the network. The target was 100,000 to 500,000 m³/day from small (up to 5,000 m³/day), medium and large units, including containerised, barge and ship-based options. First units were meant to run by August 2017.
The report showed how a major city in acute drought first asked the market about quickly deployable, modular desalination before placing any orders.