In August 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Cape Town had presented a plan against its water crisis, drawn up by a task team over eleven weeks. Schemes for up to 500,000 m³/day were to be procured in three stages: first groundwater (100,000 m³/day) plus containerised and barge-mounted desalination (50,000 m³/day each), then water reuse at six treatment works and permanent desalination at the harbour (50,000 m³/day each), and in an extreme case floating desalination (200,000 m³/day). The first tender appeared on 16 August 2017.
The report showed that Cape Town relied on a staged mix of groundwater, reuse and desalination, with desalination making up the largest share of the planned volume.