In February 2018, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Oceana, a canned fish producer in South Africa's Western Cape, was preparing two desalination plants ahead of the day zero expected in April 2018. At its St Helena Bay factory, an 800 m³/day plant with two 1,000 m³ tanks, at a cost of ZAR 20 million (about $1.7 million), was due by the end of March 2018. Beach wells supplied the feed, and the outfall reached 1.3 kilometres offshore. A second, 600 m³/day unit was proposed at Laaiplek.
The report showed that the Western Cape water crisis was then pushing industrial firms to secure themselves against a failure of public supply with their own small desalination plants.